Death at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles

My review will be for the hardcover version of this book, which is available on Amazon.
The Cecil Hotel, has a very dark, disturbing, macabre history which is now infamous and intriguing to a lot of people, more recently due to the murder or suicide of the Chinese-Canadian student Elisa Lam, while she was staying at the Hotel, the Night Stalker-(Richard Ramirez) & another serial killer
There are various books about The Night Stalker, some are about people that corresponded with him while he was incarcerated in prison leading up to his death on the 7th June 2013 due to B-cell lymphoma.
The Cecil Hotel has since had the name of the Hotel changed to (Stay on the Main) instead to disassociate themselves from any bad publicity, or negative attention, it is afterall still a Hotel.

The first two chapters of the book are in my opinion, a bit tedious to read, since not all the information is relevant to the creation of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.
However it was interesting to read about the history of America in the 1920's (The Roaring Twenties) & 1930's (Depression Era)
I never knew there was a Cecil Hotel alongside the River Thames in London created in 1896, so it was interesting to read about it.
The original idea for the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles was for it to be a opulent, decadent, Hotel of sophistication, class and respect, I liked the description of the creation of the statue of the Greek Goddess Athena or the fact that the Cecil Hotel had Greek Statues in the Hotel.
Just from looking at the black and white photo of the entrance of the Cecil Hotel, it has a old fashioned, classical, Greek or Roman sophisticated style from a bygone era, that isn't really used as much in the modern world unless you are rich, or own a historical building.
It's clear to see that there has been a steady decline of the class of clientele (the poor, junkies, prostitutes), the reputation of the Cecil Hotel since the Depression Era and due to the fact that the Cecil Hotel is on Skid Row, which is one of the poorest areas of America historically & in modern times. The history of the Hotel, is dark, macabre, disturbing, historically & in modern times which has contributed & created the infamous, dark reputation & aura of the Cecil Hotel and it's probably why the name of the Cecil Hotel In Los Angeles was changed to (The Stay on the Main), to avoid negative publicity, macabre interest/dark tourism but some people like me are interested in true crime.
Afterall it is still a Hotel, so they want to maintain their reputation as a reputable, trustworthy Hotel.

The woman on the cover of the book is Elizabeth Short (A.K.A The Black Dahlia) which is a infamous unsolved murder case due to the way Elizabeth Short was murdered.
She was known as The Black Dahlia because she wore black & for dying her hair black, she was a aspiring actress, but sadly never got to live out her lifelong dream.
I believe she was lured, kidnapped by a coercive stranger, she was staying at the Cecil Hotel, and was seen there around the time she disappeared, and as murdered.
She was tortured, probably raped, strangled, exsanguinated (drained of all her blood), her face was mutilated, cut from her mouth to her ears, her body was cut in half and them discarded on a strangers front lawn, where she was later discovered.
Her murderer is a sexual sadist, he washed her body, hair, to remove any possible trace of evidence, so her body had a very pale pallor & mannequin like appearance, so people mistakenly thought that her mutilated, bisected corpse (her corpse was cut in half from the waist) was a discarded mannequin.
Her murderer, has the surgical skill & knowledge of a doctor.
Her brutal, disturbing murder has never been conclusively solved, but I think a prime suspect is,
George Hill Hodel Jr. he already had a inappropriate, incestuous, sexual relationship with his daughter that he was sexually abusing, he hates women, he was known to be violent.
Only a man that hates women, would have done that to Elizabeth Short.
Her death was unnecessary, brutal, violent, she suffered a lot, I hope that one day her unsolved murder will be conclusively solved.

Skid Row is a notoriously economically deprived area of America, in & around the Cecil Hotel, the poor and the homeless predominantly lie in this area, for a serial killer the poor, homeless or anyone that's a sex worker is a easy target.
Their murders are less likely to be noticed, or solved, the poor, homeless and sex worker are a marginalised minority of society that are mostly ignored, invisible, judged/shamed/hated for being poor and judged for the way they live their lives and try to makes ends meet.
People don't choose to be poor, homeless or a sex worker and it not their fault that they are struggling and most people wouldn't have the empathy, or compassion to be understanding of their circumstances and try to help them, instead on condemn them to a miserable existence.
They are sadly a victim of their circumstances, and for a lot of people there is no way out of it, there isn't a way to improve themselves or their lives, it is what it is, unfortunately.
It makes sense to me that there would be some types of opportunistic, predatory serial killers that would prey on and murder, the most vulnerable people in society, why the serial killers weren't caught for awhile, due to the types of victims, no one noticed that they were missing, no one reported their absence, or suspicious that they might be dead or may have been murdered.
This is what Anthony Sowell & The Grim Sleeper relied on, the fact that no one would notice or care if people that are poor, homeless or a sex worker were murdered.
If a victim of Anthony Sowell, didn't fall out of a window and ask for help, then his house of horrors would never have been discovered.
He was a serial killer in plain sight, but no one noticed him or the Grim Sleeper for a long time.
The poor, homeless, sex workers have always been considered undesirable people in society, this is why some serial killer are mission-oriented and feel like it is their duty, their right to rid society of these types of supposedly undesirable people.
The Yorkshire Ripper s a good example of that.

The Night Stalker & Jack Unterweger: Both of these predatory, serial killers killed women, they both stayed at the Cecil Hotel.
Richard Ramirez's mother working in an environment that had toxic fumes & radiation & his cousin Miguel, showing him photographs of women that he had tortured, raped and decapitated & murdering his wife in front of Richard when Richard was a young and impressionable teenager were both a very bad influence on Richard.
I think he did have the capacity to be caring of kind, but due to things he experienced in his lie it moulded him into who he became as a person and as a serial killer.
It's not surprising that his siblings were born with deformities when Richard & his family grew up in a economically deprived area, they weren't able to move due to poverty, so they were stuck living in an area that exposed them to radiation poisoning.
So far Richard Ramirez is the only serial killer that I have read about that used thumb cuffs, to incapacitate their victims which is unusual.
Throughout his killing spree/murderous rampage, Richard Ramirez was watching the news, or reading about his crimes in the newspaper so he learnt from every crime/murder he commited what to improve or to do differently, the next time he picked a potential victim(s) while he was prowling for victims. He entered homes that had a open or unlocked door, window, or removed the screen to gain access into a house via a window.
His footprints, AC/DC hat, bullet casings for his .22 calibre gun were found at the crime scenes, he always wore a specific brand and size of trainers/sneakers so eventually this was one of the reasons he was suspected of being The Night Stalker and caught by a vigilante mob/crowd of people, beaten up as vigilante justice due to the local people recognizing him and calling him “El Matador”-(The Assassin in Spanish) and he was arrested by the police.
He was the only person that bought the Avia athletic brand of shoes (trainers/sneaker) in size 11.5.
His shoes matched the footprints found outside of more of house where he broke in more than one house that was a crime scene.
Lillian the wife of the Japanese-American retired veteran recognized her attacker, the man that murdered her husband and she gave the police a specific description of Richard Ramirez.
In my opinion, I think that Richard Ramirez was always going to be a predatory, rapist, peadophile, serial killer, even without abuse he suffered, his head injuries, epilepsy, he was addicted to masturbating, he had specific kinks/fetishes that he was into.
He was a troubled person, from a young age, growing up in a abusive household, sleeping in a graveyard, where he felt at peace, to avoid his abusive dad and being influenced by his cousin Miguel that had no regard for human life, he hated women, so he tortured, raped, murdered & decapitated women and took photos.
He showed these disgusting, disturbing photos to Richard, when he was a impressionable teenager, that was easily influenced & he was impressed by them rather than feel disgusted by them, like any normal human being would feels if they saw photographs like that.
All of this contributed to Richard Ramirez becoming a who he was a person, as a serial killer, it moulded him into becoming a unrepentant, remorseless, predatory peadophile, rapist, thief, violent serial killer.
He tortured his victims & made them “swear to Satan” or to say “they love Satan”.
One thing I don't understand about Richard Ramirez, is that he never wore a mask, or something to cover his face, so it would have made it more difficult to identify him, his victims saw his face.
In some ways he seemed forensically aware, but he also made mistakes, became sloppy overtime or maybe he didn't care and left evidence at the crime scenes, such as the (11.5 Avia athletic shoe) footprints outside near a window he removed the screen from to enter houses, bullet casings and his AC/DC hat that he totally forgot about.
It's common for even meticulous serial killers to become lazy, sloppy or not care if they leave any traceable evidence at a crime scene, even if the corpse of a serial killers victim(s) doesn't exist anymore, they can still be convicted of their victims murders.
Microscopic evidence is vital, in any serial killer investigation case, DNA can't be faked, but DNA evidence can be placed at a crime scene to make it look like someone was involved or at a crime scene when they weren't.
Innocent people have sometimes been convicted of a crime they didn't do, some people on Death Row are innocent.
But this doesn't apply to the Night Stalker, he loved what he did, he was addicted to murder, to the public being shocked, or disgusted by what he did, he loved the attention he received for what he did.
His inflated pride & ego were his downfall, Satan may have protected him, but he would still be arrested, tried, convicted and sent to Death Row because he was a serial killer.
While in court he had the audacity to act up for attention from women, admirers', he had a lot of penpals, people he was friends with & corresponded with which included a lot of women but I never knew that he wrote a letter to the American actor Sean Penn.
Richard Ramirez created a lot of demonic/Satanic artwork that he sometimes signed The Night Stalker until he was forced to draw normal, non violent disturbing imagery, but his artwork has always has been and always will be popular.
He wasn't allowed to use the moniker The Night Stalker on his artwork, because it would make it seem like he was only creating the artwork, to profit from it from his fellow Satanists, admirers, fans, groupies.
Richard Ramirez got married to Doreen Lioy while he was incarcerated, not sure if her genuinely loved & cared about the woman he married, but the photographs I have seen online look like they love each other.
Richard Ramirez was a popular person as a serial killer even though he raped, tortured, murdered his victims.
Jack Unterweger is a Austrian journalist & predatory serial killer (known as the Vienna Woods killer) he murdered 9 women in total that were prostitutes, he hated women.
He wrote his own autobiography, but there isn't a version of it available in English unfortunately.
Jack Unterweger (a Austrian journalist/Serial Killer) & The Night Stalker were both staying at the Cecil Hotel.
Further reading for anyone that doesn't know who Johann “Jack” Unterweger is, would be Into Hades: The Double Life of a Serial KIller- written by John Leake.
From a young age Johann's Opa (Grandfather) was influential to him, even if he resented him, he was a impressionable child that was deprived of genuine love & affection that he craved and yearned for from his mother but never received that so he had a love-hate relationship with women.
He learned how to treat women, or specifically sex workers based on how his grandfather treated them, so he was the same.
He is sexual sadist, a narcissist, that is prone to outbursts of rage & anger.
I think he is a sexual narcissist as well, if/when he didn't get what he wanted from women, he was violent and murdered the women that rejected his sexual advances if they weren't interested & they didn't want to have sex with him.
I like the old, black & white photographs that are used in the book, it's interesting to see the old fashioned architecture, the way buildings looked when they were originally built.

Eliza Lam: Based on the description of her personality, her mindset, she was, a shy, introverted, anti-social loner & a bookworm.
She suffered from depression & Bipolar disorder, she did feel & experience suicidal ideation (suicidal thoughts & behaviour associated with that), but infrequently, some people that are Bipolar sometimes feel & experience suicidal ideation, but not constantly.
She expressed online on her tumblr blog that she wanted to kill herself, but it was a fleeting thought, she wasn't constantly thinking about committing suicide and her behaviour doesn't exhibit that of someone that was suicidal.
She said it herself, that was a coward and didn't have the guts, or the courage to commit suicide and she had no interest in harming herself, because wasn't a self-destructive masochist like a lot depressed, anxious people are.
So based on this, it makes absolutely no sense that she committed suicide at all.
She was a naive, woman that was a bit too trusting of strangers or people in general.
How did Elisa Lam gain access to the roof, when it was locked, alarmed and access to any fire escapes to lead to the roof was forbidden to any guest, or long-term resident of the Hotel.
If she was on the roof, it would have set off the alarm, on the first two floors of the Hotel and at the reception desk but the members of staff, said the alarm was working properly and there was no fault or issue with it.
I believe due to the bad reputation that the security staff had, that a security member and a general Hotel staff member are involved in Elisa Lam's death.
She had blood on her buttocks, which could have been the result of rape or consensual sex, it was & never has been determined if Elisa was raped, there was only, her antidepressant, antipsychotic medication found in her toxicology test results & she was dead before being placed in the water but had no signs of physical trauma other than blood on her buttocks.
She could have been drugged with chloroform on a tissue, rendered unconscious and then raped, murdered and placed in the water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel.
Her drowning was a dry drowning, she could have been still alive but unconscious when she was placed in the water but no water was found in her lungs, so she was dead before being placed in the water.
More than one person noticed her weird behaviour, but it could of been due to her taking less of her medication.
There are various angles of the CCTV footage, but not all of it was made available to the public.
She had no reason at all to go to the roof, or anywhere near the water tank on the roof, so I believe in my opinion, that Elisa Lam was manipulated, coerced under false pretences to follow or join a security staff member & a general Cecil Hotel member that had access to the rooftop area key & knew the alarm code hence why the alarm was never heard because it might have been disabled temporarily.
She could have been drugged with chloroform, raped while she was unconscious or incapacitated, then murdered & placed in the water tower.
The lid of the water tower is heavy, Elisa Lam wouldn't have been able to lift and remove it, but two men could have done that with ease, in a documentary at the Cecil Hotel, it was stated that several people would have had to loft the lid of the water tower to remove it.
While in the lift/elevator Elisa Lam was playing the Elevator Ritual, a paranormal ritual that if done correctly would take you to another realm, or another dimension.
In my opinion, if Elisa Lam really wanted to commit suicide she could have overdosed on her medication, jumped from a window etc, but she didn't.
This mysterious and unexplained death of Elisa Lam, still needs more thorough investigation, why wasn't any DNA tested for the rape kit?
Was Elisa Lam raped & murdered, then placed in the water tower to remove traces of evidence, DNA? Why were Elisa Lam's temporary hotel roommates weren't ever questioned?
Is there CCTV footage from the time Elisa Lam was in the Hotel room/moved to a new room?
I enjoyed reading this book, but I feel like the author sometimes waffled on about stuff that wasn't always relevant to the Cecil Hotel, but it as relevant to the 1920's & 1930's since the Cecil Hotel was built in 1924 but it made reading the book sometimes boring or tedious to read.
I'm happy that this book was written and I was able to purchase copy of it and to read it, since the Cecil Hotel has always been really interesting to me, due to it's dark, macabre, disturbing history as a low-rent affordable Hotel & the dak aura the Hotel has.