Dark City
S1E5 The Cecil Hotel in Downtown LA: A True American Horror Story Pt 2
👏 Special thanks to our talented partners:
👏 Special thanks to our talented partners:
Hi there. If you are enjoying Dark City, we would love it if you would click rate and subscribe. When you subscribe, you will never miss an episode, and ratings help others find us so that we can keep creating content you enjoy and that we love making for you. Thank you so much for your support. We hope you enjoy this week's episode. Hey, dark City fans, this is Leah and this is April.
Speaker 1:Last week, we shared a few of the stories that are part of the dark and twisted history of the Cecil Hotel. While many people talk about the Cecil being haunted so far, the people who have actually lived here and their stories are scary enough. No need for ghosts, but this week we will talk about the potential presence of the paranormal and how it may or may not have played a role in the tragic death of Elisa Lum. This is Dark City Season 1, los Angeles. All right, so since I didn't know what Skid Row was, we listened to the songs, and I'm not going to sing it. We already did that. We already did that and we decided we'd love to karaoke. 18 in life, 18 in life. My crime is time and it's 18 in life to go. So we Googled a picture and they look like your typical 80s rock band long hair, oh yeah, fantastic. Which reminds me, funny enough, two blocks away from the Cecil Hotel, there is this amazing place called Clifton's Republic.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were telling me about this. Yeah, so I went and I went with my husband. It was a few months ago. How this relates to the 80s band. It's going to come around, I promise. Okay, I had never heard of this place and it was like the coolest place you've never heard of.
Speaker 1:So every single floor has a theme it's a nightclub and, like the first floor, I think, is like magical forest. The second floor is gothic, I think. There's like tiki bar on the third or something like that, and there is a giant fake sequoia planted it's not real, obviously, but planted at the base floor and it goes all the way up to the third floor. So like if you're on the upper levels you can look down. But then there's like all these just different, really cool features. And there's like all these just different, really cool features.
Speaker 1:Like there is the bar, is a revived Gothic altar on the Gothic floor, which is, of course, where I spent most of my time, yeah, and then just all kinds of cool, like random things. Like you can go and get a shot in a tarot reading at the same time, and then you could be like this place needs a gigantic buffalo, gigantic buffalo, stuffed buffalo, and then you turn and there it is. So it's just so random and so cool and like, I think, every type of person. It felt like all age ranges were there. So when we were sitting on the gothic floor and we were looking down to the first floor. This is how the 80s band relates. There's this guy with bleach blonde hair and in a style that Ryan was like. That guy right there he totally looks like a vampire from a 1980s movie.
Speaker 2:I said oh no, he's like somebody out of the Lost.
Speaker 1:Boys, yeah, and I said no, I know my 1980s vampires in movies. That is the lead singer from Flock of Seagull, so all kinds of crazy fun stuff. But yeah, you wouldn't guess it's a couple of blocks from the Cecil. Yeah, it is, so we'll have to go. Interesting yeah, I feel like they're always like doing some sort of renovation. It's an old building, so I think it had. I don't remember what the problem was, but it was closed. I hope it reopens. So here we are. Cecil Hotel Okay, here we go. You had a chance. I had a chance to sleep, kind of, last night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I slept, fine. We'll see about tonight. Well, I don't know, I'm a little nervous for this video, but okay, I don't know.
Speaker 1:So I've been thinking about this episode or researching it, you know, off and on for a couple of months. We never record or write our episodes like in the exact order, by the way, right, because you were wondering. So to me the shock value has totally worn off. So it'll be kind of interesting to see it through Like fresher eyes. Exactly, and now we are recording in the middle of the day and it is appropriately cloudy outside, but it's not at night, it's kind of gloomy, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, I can't watch this stuff late at night.
Speaker 2:It's too much Agreed True crime, not a problem.
Speaker 1:Hauntings that aren't real, no way Yep Agreed.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we'll talk about Elisa Lam, then we'll talk about a couple of the theories about well, actually it's just one theory about how it might be haunted, and then we'll talk about where it looks like it's going today. Okay, and even if you know you haven't heard her story before, there's still like details that come out. So I still think you'll find surprising details in there. But, like you need to get up to speed and everybody else who hasn't heard the story does so. Elisa was a Canadian student. She was from Vancouver in her early 20s and she decided I'm going to go and travel the coast of California and she started in Southern California and she went by herself, which was super brave.
Speaker 1:She's like you know, just nice young person who's got a lot of freedom and time.
Speaker 2:Wants to go explore?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and like I don't think I could ever do it alone, I mean. I'm not that brave.
Speaker 2:No, I know, but I think that's really cool when people do this.
Speaker 1:I know so she, when she came to Los Angeles as part of this trip, she checked into the stay on main. So that's that branded floor four through six.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for like the younger generation, right, they were trying to attract Right right and people who maybe didn't want to stay were Cecil's reputation. Uh-huh yeah.
Speaker 1:If you remember from episode number one, the manager of the Cecil from the mid-2000s to 2010s, amy Price. She said she heard about Elisa first because of a complaint that someone gave to the front desk agent. She told her Amy, a woman in room 506 is leaving post-it notes on other guests' bed and that they say things like go home Right. Room 506, by the way, is a female dorm in case you're confused.
Speaker 2:It contains six bunk beds so you're there staying with other people Like it really is, truly like a hostel.
Speaker 1:Right. The front desk agent also said that there had been other complaints about Elisa from her fellow bunkers, and one of them was she would walk the door and then ask people for a password in order to enter. Oh, right, okay. And Elisa Lam also keeps an online journal and so far you know everything. I think I believe up to this point. You know, it sounds like you know normal. This doesn't sound like something she would be doing, right, okay, amy offered Elisa her own room and that stopped the complaints, so she's moved over. But that's not the only example of her strange behavior. It was also reported she also went to a live audience production show in Burbank where it was said she was acting erratic. She wrote a long rambling note where she demanded to see the host, which triggers security concerns. Sure, and they escort her away.
Speaker 2:There's clearly a break going on? Was she ever confronted about these things that we know of, or like they were just kind of like? We have this complaint. We can move you to this room.
Speaker 1:I think that's pretty much it. What else can you really do? Okay, that's pretty much it, because what else can you really?
Speaker 1:do and then outside of being escorted out of that studio. Normally, elisa would call her parents every day, but when they do not hear from her and she never checks out on her checkout day, they get worried and they call the police. Police come, they bring in dogs and they chase down her scent on one of the floors, but it drops off once they get to a window, outside of which is a fire escape. This is important later. Okay, so they check the roof in addition to the whole hotel, and they don't see anything. Okay, there's nothing there. When they do further investigation, they pull video footage.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, they determined the last time she came out of the hotel she never left, and the last video of her seen alive is from the hotel elevator.
Speaker 2:So she went in and she didn't come back out. Right, okay, right.
Speaker 1:And then they saw her on the elevator, right, right, and they may have seen her in between, but basically this is the last. This is the last time she's seen Okay On any of the footage. Okay, so, april, this is the video.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to show you. It's, you know, five minutes, um, we won't make.
Speaker 2:and then we'll come back through something you can't see.
Speaker 1:But if you do want to pause it, we're gonna link this on our social media, so go check it out there. We'll be back in just a moment.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we just watched the video it's so bizarre and it some parts are really, I don't know, creepy and weird to me. Right, she's like for those of you that haven't seen the video she goes into the elevator, she pushes all of the buttons to hit like every floor and then she pops out around the corner like she's trying to scare someone. Only you don't see anybody there. And then she goes back in and leans up against where the buttons are, like she's hiding, and then she waits a minute and then she like goes back around and like pops out. She walks like in and out of the elevator a couple times. At one point she's standing in the frame and she's like doing weird stuff with her hands.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's Like. She's like gesturing or talking or I don't know something, but she's like crouching down a couple times, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Like it.
Speaker 2:looks like it could be like a kid, even playing hide and seek Right yeah, like she's playing with a kid, it's not she's talking to a grown-up or like hiding from a grown-up she's like crouching down when she does stuff, and then she goes back in the elevator again and hits all of the buttons again and then the end of the video is the elevator hitting like all of the floors. She left the elevator before the door closed and went up all of the floors, right, right, okay, what floor were they on when she did this? Do you know?
Speaker 1:was this her floor? I don't know let me come back to that I think I might have this in here, but they were able.
Speaker 1:They were able to figure out what floor she was on. Okay, uh, as you can imagine, the lapd when they released this uh it caused a lot of internet sleuths to sleuth, yeah, yeah, like I remember the first time I watched it I definitely did some digging. Hold that thought Okay On the floor, okay, okay, elisa goes missing now for several weeks after this last video footage. During that time there's another couple named Mike and Sabina Bao that check into the stay. So they're from England and they booked after finding a really good deal for a two-week alley holiday. When they arrive, they know the lobby is beautiful and grand holiday.
Speaker 1:When they arrive, they know the lobby is beautiful and grand, but things go downhill from there. The elevator feels like it's from the early 1900s. They get to their room and it's dirty, dusty, the floor is sticky. But they try to rationalize okay, it's cheap and they're probably exhausted from their flight and anyway, they're not going to really be staying here, so let's just make do. And they don't switch hotels. Okay, one day they notice when they turn on the water it's really low pressure and it tastes kind of funny.
Speaker 2:Ew.
Speaker 1:They report it to the hotel and maintenance goes up to the water tanks to inspect. Uh-huh, they report it to the hotel and maintenance goes up to the water tanks to expect. When maintenance goes and looks into one of the water tanks, they find Elisa's naked body floating lifelessly in the tank. Did you know that part? That it was a water?
Speaker 2:tank. I did know there was a water tank involved and that's where I thought she was found, right, okay, I didn't know like details of anything out of those was found. Okay. Okay, I didn't know like details of anything out of those two things, Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is about as bizarre of a place you could possibly find and it's tragic. Yeah, on further inspection, they find her clothes. They are all at the bottom of the tank. When an autopsy is performed, it's really difficult to pinpoint the time of death. Okay, okay, and who knows how long she's been in there. You know, the clothes found at the bottom of the tank are the same clothes she was wearing in the video.
Speaker 1:So presumably it happened that night Probably have a lot of questions. Let's go through each of those. First of all, how the hell did she get up there? Yes, remember how I told you that her scent trailed off at that window by the fire escape, so it's possible she could have opened the window and then closed it when she got on the fire escape and went to the top.
Speaker 1:Now, though, the thing is between the last floor and the roof. It's not a staircase, it's a ladder, like just like a ladder you would stick. So like. Here you are about 16 feet up and you like, if you were to slip at all, you were falling to your death. It's not something you would think somebody would try to attempt, but definitely like. It's there for a reason, so it's not like you can't do it. There is also a ladder to the top of the water tank once you get on the roof, so that's how she could get up there, and there's also. The other alternative is that there's a door to the rooftop, but here's the thing it's not looking likely. She went through that because it's supposed to have an alarm that goes off as soon as you.
Speaker 1:You know it okay and you can only turn that alarm off by key okay which, granted, you know, alarms can break, but sure, but just given, like her scent track, her scent track to that window and assuming everything was working the way it should with that door, yeah.
Speaker 1:So so far, how like she would get up there is sounds fairly clear. Yeah. So your next question is probably but why in the hell would she go up there unless? Was she forced, was she dragged? But here's the thing if she was forced up there and if it's sexually motivated, as many people thought, because she was found naked, yeah, you would probably find foreign dna under her fingernails if she tried to fight off her attacker or in her rape kit, but they don't find any of that. So why is she naked? So let's say she decided to take a swim in the tank. I actually could see how she could have taken off of her clothes because once she realized she was in there. So there's no ladder inside of it and the water only comes up so high that there's like no way you're going to be able to pull yourself up.
Speaker 2:No rational person is going to be like I'm going to get on this roof and climb in this water tank and go for a swim.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's also not acting rationally though I know so does this tank have a lid on it? It does, and it's a source of a bit of controversy too. How'd she get the lid up? The lid itself is? It's not. It's not on a hinge, it's 20. It's 20 pounds like you can lift it off you could do, you could do that all yourself. Yeah, but once you're in there and if you can't like reach up and grab the lid and close it or, I'm sorry, like if it's closed you can't.
Speaker 2:You can't reach up and open it.
Speaker 1:You can't reach up and open it. It's 20 pounds, so it's way too heavy. That's not an option From the perspective of like being naked. I could see her being like whether she was forced up there or she decided to go up there. I could see her being like okay, these clothes are now super heavy because they're saturated with water.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:That explains, like, why she would take them off, okay. Okay, one of the speculations is yeah, so nobody would go up in a tank like that. That's crazy. Yeah, was she dragged up there? Well, so that if they went up that ladder up the roof, where you would risk your death, that would be super hard because, like, you're going up this ladder without supports and you're carrying a whole human being plus, she's bound to sustain injuries if she was dragged, especially considering, too, that the water tank itself is 10 feet high.
Speaker 1:In the event that she did go, they did go through the door, they didn't go through the fire escape and the alarm didn't work, which I don't think is the scenario. But just in case, you know, still going up a 10-foot ladder somewhere along the way going up a ladder, you know, still going up a 10 foot ladder somewhere along the, somewhere along the way going up a ladder, you're going to get injured, but her autopsies reveal no external or internal injuries. Okay, here's one thing I thought of, though, that nobody really talked about so far as I saw is that but if there was someone behind you with a gun, Sure, you can still go up these things and you're not going to be injured.
Speaker 1:Right, you know you're going to, you're going to be moving because otherwise you're dead and you have no idea where you're going. I would be so confused if you're going up a water tank, but then it's like who would do that? What would be the motive? Right, and again, some of the residents that have been in death. Couple serial killers Right, but I feel like Somebody just did it to do it, but I guess it doesn't sound very likely, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here's my other question, and I don't know if you have this answer or not Are there fingerprints anywhere? Like, if she opened the window, are her fingerprints on the window? That's a good question. Like, are her fingerprints on this ladder that goes up to the roof?
Speaker 1:That's a really good question, because it would be right. You would think I didn't see anything that said either way. So someone write in if you know they did, because you have to have fingerprints to open up a window.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, unless she in the video, she didn't have gloves on. You know Right? I don't know Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's really interesting. I'm like if somebody else was with her.
Speaker 2:I mean maybe they wouldn't have fingerprints, maybe they would be gloved and whatever Right, but probably not her, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, right. And most people wouldn't open up a window, you know, in a hotel, by a fire escape. There's just no reason to. So I imagine, like you're always going to get a lot of fingerprints everywhere, but there could have been something there, but so many years have passed that if they didn't do that, if they didn't, oh sure.
Speaker 2:I would imagine they would have. That probably seems like standard operating procedure for Exactly. Exactly An investigation, especially a missing person, or like once they found the water tank, maybe they tried to fingerprint, but it was too far out after she had been reported missing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good follow-up. That's a good catch Interesting. Yeah, I would be surprised, I would be shocked reported missing. Yeah, that's a good follow-up. That's a good catch interesting. Yeah, I would be surprised, I would be shocked if you're, if you're, if your dogs took you right to a spot but then you didn't bother right they must have right, even if not initially. Yeah, because who would have ever thought before the weeks had passed, who would ever have thought that she would be in the water tank?
Speaker 1:but as soon as they figured that out. So we'll see. Okay, because if they didn't I would be, and if there are no fingerprints, it's like okay, but you can't or if there's fingerprints but none of them were hers, right?
Speaker 2:it's weird, oh of course you could.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm sure someone somewhere probably would have wanted to go and open a window on a fire escape. I don't know why, but given the turn, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:I mean that's why most hotels nowadays don't have windows that can open like that, because they don't want things like that to happen. Exactly, it's a huge liability.
Speaker 1:And there's no way, because then you could be like well, she could have still gotten up there and and had gloves on, but why in the world would you put on gloves? Now we're getting just like beyond the realm of ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Why was she up there in the first place? I know anyways okay.
Speaker 1:So if someone didn't drag her possible maybe, like somebody had a gun on her and was doing this? Because they're just evil, they're just evil, okay. There's still another detail that puzzles everyone now with the lid on the tank. Uh, so we talked about that and just like when she was in, like if it closed? If it closed, it would be hard to open swimming and pushing up 20 pounds yeah okay, the the thing that puzzled so many people and like why there was so much?
Speaker 1:there were a lot of reasons why there were there were so many internet sleuths, but a lot of people got stuck on this. The media reported that the lid on the tank was closed when she was found. Not only could she not get out of the tank if it was closed, that also means she can't close it once she's in it.
Speaker 2:I mean, could you be on the edge and have the like? Was the lid? Was it on a hinge, not on a hinge, so closed hinge.
Speaker 1:So closed is closed, it's just closed. Why would you close yourself in in any way? Just given how far the water comes up and there's no ladder inside, there's no way she would have closed it. So that okay. So with the with with that being reported, people are like okay, there's a, there's a second man or woman here someone had somebody else involved someone had to close the tank because, unless there's routine maintenance for water tanks I'm guessing you know no in the last few weeks.
Speaker 1:Here is the problem with that, though On the Netflix documentary they talk about the maintenance staff he put the lid back on. No, he actually said it was open when he went to go check. Oh, he did. When he went to go check the water tank, he said I saw the lid was open.
Speaker 1:I looked inside something along those lines, but he was very clear and he was interviewed on the documentary. He said no, it was open. Okay, like the media just reported the wrong thing. It was reported wrong, okay. So then that idea then of okay, so she went up on her own volition, nobody forced her there, nobody dragged her there. So what's the deal? Is she on drugs?
Speaker 2:yeah, like was she hallucinating, obviously that video something in the video that, whether there was something there or not, I mean it's. You can't see it. I don't, it's just bizarre because you can't see it. If you could see the whole thing and nobody's there, I feel like you'd be like okay, something weird's going on here. Either she's hallucinating or she's seeing something that the rest of us don't see.
Speaker 1:Or we could see if we were there, but we're not.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's also not hard to imagine, with a young girl traveling for the first time and she's in LA downtown, if she wanted to try drugs. She wasn't known to do drugs but she maybe. But the toxicology report shows no evidence of illegal drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 2:but there's a key detail I did not share Cause I kind of was just curious how you would respond to everything else, because I have another question, but I don't know if this is going to answer it. Okay, so go ahead.
Speaker 1:Okay, elisa suffered from depression and bipolar disorder. Okay, so in fact, she was on meds for these? Okay, but when the investigators looked at her medication bottles, they found there's a higher number of pills in the bottle, given their fill dates Okay, and when the toxicology report was examined, it was found that there were lower levels of those medications than there should be. Okay, so essentially, she's undertaking her meds, okay. Does that answer your question? No, what were you going to ask?
Speaker 2:What was her cause of death? Like what was it officially ruled Drowning?
Speaker 1:It took a while for them to rule it, just because of how odd, and plus they had to wait for all of the toxicology reports and everything to come back, and there's been speculation about how long it took. But I believe the official cause of death was accidental drowning. Okay, yeah, with her undertaking her meds Is a side effect hallucinations. Well, her sister ended up reporting that in the past when Elisa would skip her meds, she would experience psychotic episodes, which is what the complaints with what she was doing in the rooms.
Speaker 2:It almost kind of fits that profile.
Speaker 1:You can't just stop those medications. Yeah, they have to be titrated down, otherwise it's messing. It's literally With your brain chemistry Right yeah, right yeah.
Speaker 2:They have to be titrated down.
Speaker 1:Otherwise it's I mean, it's messing, it's literally with your brain chemistry, right, right, right. Her sister said what she would do when she skipped. In addition to like having paranoia, she would hide under the bed Like somebody was looking for her. Think about like what you saw on the video.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with with her like doing like a hide and seek, and right pops out and then hides right right, so case closed maybe okay, it seems plausible, at least that portion of it right, but still I don't get the water tank right. You, you know right. Hiding under the bed is one thing, like going out of your room or out of your home or whatever, and doing something strange like that is something else.
Speaker 1:That is. And why would anyone ever think about hiding in a water tank Like I would just never know, I know.
Speaker 1:So that's where I get stuck, because I can. I can see why she had a psychotic break, given that she just stopped her meds and it was. Everything else was like in line with what would happen when she stopped. But okay, you're in a 600 bedroom hotel. Why would you go, do all of that effort to go like open a window, up a staircase, up another or up a ladder where you could fall to your death and then up another ladder and then lift a lid and then just go in? Yeah, it's a lot, it is, it's possible, but it's weird, it's very weird. Outside of a supernatural force, right, I don't know, I think the theory of somebody following her with a gun, I mean I know there's the question of, well, who would do that? You need a motive, but people, I mean serial killers do stuff like that all the time. It's just weird.
Speaker 2:It's very weird.
Speaker 1:All the reasons why she didn't know anybody in la so it's not like who would you know who would, who would do that as their method? Of killing why in the world would you follow someone up it? I don't know yeah, no matter how you slice or dice it, it's like the most. To me, the most reasonable explanation was it was medication related, yeah she did it all herself.
Speaker 1:It's still a lot. It is. It's so bizarre. It's bizarre. Now here's a really interesting perspective. There is a podcast called robbie and ellen solve the case. Uh-huh, and, by the way, fun fact, robbie, if you remember the series serial which started this trend of everybody listening to podcasts, and actually why I'm sitting here, and you're sitting here ultimately, rabia is Adnan Syed's aunt, okay, who really advocated for him.
Speaker 1:She is one of the first voices you hear in the first episode of Serial, so she went on, oh cool. And now she and her partner, ellen, they I believe they're both trained. Well, I know Robbie is a trained attorney. I'm going to go to their live show in like a month, so maybe I'll ask.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's. It's really good, like if you want a different true crime perspective, because they go back and forth. There's just two really smart, entertaining people talking about cases. So what they did? They covered this case. They brought on a medium named Jonathan Mark. Okay, I'm always going to be skeptical, as I've said before and I'll say again, but I did see an article that said he has worked with the FBI and CIA.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm completely open to this kind of thing. I think it's possible. I don't.
Speaker 1:Right, I would be highly like I would vet all of the rational stuff. Yeah, just because it's a lot to digest and explain.
Speaker 2:I don't just believe everything. I think it's good to have that healthy skepticism, but also I'm open to people knowing things.
Speaker 1:Right. So if I see like credible sources that have worked with them, it I mean I'm not I'm not going to say like I'm a hundred percent in the boat, but it helps. So yeah, I'll consider it. And also, too, there is a history where they have worked with psychics, so this isn't like a new, a new thing, right, we should totally do a Patreon episode on that. I did find a like.
Speaker 1:I found a book and it was on. It was on a federal government site, I can't remember which one about cases, examples of when they were used, so we'll totally cover this. I'm sorry we're going off on a tangent but this is just so fascinating. So this medium. Getting back to the podcast, they talked to him on the show, but they also have him watch the video to see, like, do you, you know what? Do you?
Speaker 2:what do you?
Speaker 1:think, do you pick up? And he said he felt like it was playful. He's like I don't see like an entity. I just feel like she's kind of hiding from something like kind of like, if it's a game and these lighthearted gestures, you know they do kind of freak him out. But that was his perspective, is like, at least from what I'm seeing here on this video, there isn't, you know, like it's probably, it probably is a breakdown from not taking her meds.
Speaker 1:This is really interesting too. There's this thing called it's an elevator game. Have you ever heard of it, where, if you press certain buttons or do like some series of steps, you can then go to another realm when you go to another floor or whatever.
Speaker 1:Why would you ever play that? It's like what's your exit strategy? There are some things where I'm like, no, you don't mess with that. Like there was a question too, was she playing the elevator game? But I don't know if, like hide and seek is part of that you. You could just go to another dimension entirely. I, I'm no way uh-uh. What if you get stuck?
Speaker 2:again what's your exit strategy? There's some movie that was a video game, now I can't remember what it is and they like go and they um battle whoever. And then they get out and they think that they're like heading back home and it's the mom and the daughter and they get there and like her husband's gone and he like can almost hear them and sense them, that they're around, but they're like they're both in the home at the same time but they're in different like parallel universes, like on Stranger Things, when they're in the upside down, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Guys, that's another show you got to watch if you're going to get references. Yeah, that's. That is that's freaky.
Speaker 2:Which sounds terrifying. I don't know, I don't like. I don't like parallel universes. I don't know, I don't like I don't like parallel universes, I don't like deep space.
Speaker 1:Like no, none of those things are friendly or compatible to a happy life. So anyways, that's another topic for another day. God, I think of like oh you know, like the pioneer, like Oregon Trail, I wouldn't even do that, and that's in this world I'd be like there's too many unknowns.
Speaker 2:Yep, I'm going to dive dysentery oh my God, I love that game?
Speaker 1:Do you remember playing it on floppy disks? Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so good. Wow, we really got off on a tangent. It kind of feels good, though, cause it is like it's really freaky. So a few notes on the elevator, like in the video as far as what was happening there the internet sleuths were able to like figure out, it does look like the video was slowed down, which might be why those hand gestures looked a little weird. I don't know by how much and why.
Speaker 2:I mean I could see, maybe because you're trying to catch everything, yeah, but I don't know, she had like her fingers like splayed open and she was like Right Doing some weird stuff with her hands.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then she clasps them together Right and like, does like a little.
Speaker 1:Even sped up, it's still, I would imagine. Yeah, it still would look. I don't know, it was just bizarre. Right, they're very bizarre, they're very bizarre gestures. And then, as far as like the door, there was a lot of debate over like the door and how long it's staying open.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it stayed open a really long time, but she was like kind of in the doorway right. But I feel like most elevators would like start to close on you, yeah, and you have to like push it back open and right, with people like looking really closely, uh.
Speaker 1:So they figured out like she hit the door open at one point. So like after that it's just going to stay open, no matter how many buttons you hit. Okay, and it stays open for like something like two minutes, I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 2:So looking at that Until you hit, door closed yeah.
Speaker 1:So that could explain that. But then I also heard in the documentary too, too, people said it looked like some seconds were missing. I don't think that was ever if it was resolved or if the lepd ever commented on, like, was the video slowed down? Yeah, are there seconds missing? I didn't see anything about that. Okay, so, and amy price, the manager had said they would like we gave that video footage right over to the police. Nobody's going to, you know, take it and edit it, or you could. But like just the way things, the way they were, how they responded and who had access, it sounded like it would be very hard for the hotel staff too. So, okay, now we get to the next supernatural.
Speaker 1:There is a theory, uh, that there is a paranormal explanations, even if there aren't ghosts, and what happened to elisa was all explained by you know what we talked about. There's a lot of tragedy for one location. It seems like it's a hot spot right For, like all this negative energy Is the gate of hell underneath this thing. So I came across one interesting perspective According to the writer and exorcist Rachel Stavis. She said that there is a malevolent entity called a realm walker that has attached itself to the Cecil. So she's also someone who's been featured in legitimate sources, like she's commented in NPR and news week. She wrote a book called sister of darkness which I read. It's really good, but she she has. She said that since she was young she's been able to see entities. Rachel says that she has seen hundreds of photos of the Cecil in a video with Elisa and she can see this large dark cloud over them and she describes the different types of entities.
Speaker 1:Some are not that big of a deal, but a Realmwalker is like they're attached to the location. They're not attached to a person, like most would be If she were to go into and exercise the Cecil, which she's afraid to do because she said it's just so powerful. Plus, I guess when these things happen you could you create like a void where another. It's like a power vacuum for evil.
Speaker 2:Another one's just going to pop up. Another one's just going to pop up. Another one's just going to pop up, potentially. So the devil you know is better than the one you don't, so that was her perspective.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so remember, when I kept joking about like we're cursed and we couldn't record, yeah, I was like maybe if we just record this in Phoenix, I'll be because the Realm Walkers can work out like at a certain radius. I, because the Realm Walkers can work out like at a certain radius, I don't know what it is. I'm like maybe I'll get out of the radius. You can't curse us anymore, you're safe over here.
Speaker 2:That's just a thought.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of creepy. Okay, I think it's a lot there. It would be interesting to do a comparison of other hotels in that area because, again, it's next to skid row. It's it's a bad neighborhood.
Speaker 2:Bad things happen in bad neighborhoods and sure and sometimes there's a certain clientele that you attract there and certain behaviors that these people have or that type of thing, and you just mix that with your everyday people and you know that might leave you up to, um, I don't know, bad things happening, I guess leave you open to it, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, I know so. It'd be interesting to see how other hotels fare that are close by yeah, uh, the cecil's future, though, let's talk about that. Okay, uh, the seat soul. Funny enough, I was like is this why we keep getting interrupted so we can help advertise? The cecil is for sale right now. It is taking section 8 housing right now. So people you know there are people occupying. There are people right who are on government assistance, who are doing, you know, staying there, did they?
Speaker 2:ever close off any of the rooms where, like I don't know like I think there were certain there might have been.
Speaker 1:If I remember from Amy's book, there were like certain floors where they just didn't keep them open.
Speaker 2:I don't think they were ever at full occupancy. Okay, interesting when, like all the bad stuff, happened.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess, right, you know their haunted hotel rooms. Right, Because, right, you know they're haunted hotel rooms, right, because this happened in the room and they still rent them and people still want to stay in them, right, I guess?
Speaker 1:I, I think you could not pay me money to stay there. No Ever A friend of mine, before we really knew how it was being used. Because you can't. I don't think you can't. Yeah, you can't book there. You haven't been able to for a long time it has been for low income housing or homeless housing.
Speaker 1:It's been used. But a friend of mine had said let's go stay there at night and I said let's not. And that's before I even knew all of this. No way, and you wouldn't want to too, because also there is a report in the LA Times about how like they keep getting those infestations of cockroaches and all kinds.
Speaker 2:I mean, sometimes they are like I don't know, they just are indigenous to a location or that type of thing, but also I don't know, know it makes you wonder like right, was there something that was missed? Because there's so many things that happened at the cecil I know, I know I I wonder would not I'm with you. No, I just wouldn't.
Speaker 1:There's not a disclosed price, though.
Speaker 2:I wonder if the people that are staying and living there right now have any stories of like weird things going on.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sure they do. Yeah, I'm sure. So there is actually a guy who lives next to the Cecil and he's taken I didn't have a chance to go through it, but he's taken like video of supposedly supernatural thing. So that is the story stories of the Cecil. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:That's not even all of them, I know.
Speaker 1:And in case you're wondering how much it is, they have not disclosed the price oh what they're selling it for. They have not disclosed the price oh what they're selling it for. But I did see one source that said it looked like $220,000 for a unit. I was like no, based off of like comparables. And then I thought that is a financial analyst who has not looked at the history Right.
Speaker 2:He's not looking more broadly. Oh my, my gosh. So good luck to whoever buys it. I mean, amy was there for 10 years and you know lives to tell the tale and heard and saw some of the craziest stuff I don't know that. Just that's more than I think I could handle.
Speaker 1:I know, agree, no thanks, agree, amy is a saint. One thing too in the documentary I'm going to uh, just say I got you girl. She says this in the book that in the documentary she didn't like that they have. They have like recreated scenes with actors that aren't actually the people and she said they put me in nylons. I would never wear nylons. So, amy, I'm setting the record straight here. No, amy, price does not wear nylons.
Speaker 2:I'm with you I. It's been a real long time. I don't even know if I own any anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Death to those.
Speaker 1:All right. So next week we are going to visit another LA landmark that has seen, I think, a comparable level of death and trauma Griffith Park, oh yes. So if you know Griffith Park, you probably know it by the Hollywood sign or the Griffith Observatory, but you might not know its scandalous past, like the guy it's named after not such a good guy, and the place actually has some convincing tales of hauntings. So join us next week if you want to know what spots to avoid or maybe not avoid. If you want to go look for something I know. Just please, don't show up guys to any of these sites and do anything weird, Because, like Amy said in her book, after the Elisa Lam stuff came up like people would show up to the hotel and they would hold seances Like one guy got on top of the water tank and was playing the guitar.
Speaker 1:Be respectful yes, yeah Right, absolutely. Be respectful yes, yeah right, absolutely right. So, in conclusion, remember, stay away from the dark side, because if you don't, you can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave the or just don't go in, right see you next week. Bye, thank you.