Deaths at the Cecil Hotel—now the “Stay on Main”—are the result of murders, suicides, drug overdoses, and unexplained events. Nestled in downtown Los Angeles’s dangerous Skid Row neighborhood, a long, bizarre list of Cecil Hotel victims has grown since the hotel opened. And these victims—along with crime and alleged paranormal phenomena—are as integral to the Cecil Hotel’s history as its foundation. In fact, it frequently appears on lists of the most haunted places in the United States.
Opened in 1924, the hotel only had a few quiet years before darkness entered its halls. Petty criminals and drugs became mainstays at the Cecil. Two serial killers even stayed at the hotel during the 1980s and ’90s.
Content Warning: Mentions of suicide and homicide.
As 1926 faded into 1927, the first mark was added to the list of deaths at the Cecil—the suicide of 52-year-old Percy Cook. Since then, there have been at least 16 confirmed deaths and others that may have had ties to the building. Here are their stories…
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January 23, 1927 – Percy Cook, Suicide by Gunshot at the Cecil Hotel
A 52-year-old real estate agent named Percy Cook shot himself in his room at the Cecil Hotel in 1927. His suicide marked the first known death in the Cecil’s tragic history.
Hotel staff discovered Cook alive in his room after he’d pulled the trigger and rushed him to the hospital. He was barely clinging to life. Cook likely died in the hospital later, but since the critical event occurred at the Cecil, we’re counting it among the others.
Cook had recently separated from his wife and had spent $40,000 trying to win her back. His attempts failed, and a note he left in his room described this as his reason for ending his life.
“Money cannot buy happiness,” his letter reads. “I have tried it and found that it cannot be done.”
The timeline of events in Cook’s case has become murky, likely due to misinformation.
Modern sources seem to cite—yet misinterpret—an article printed in the Los Angeles Times on January 23, 1927. This original piece says Cook shot himself on January 22, but that he was still alive at the hospital when the article was published the morning of January 23. Therefore, it’s more likely that he died on January 23.
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November 18, 1931 – WK Norton, Suicide by Poisoning at the Cecil Hotel
In November of 1931, a man checked into the Cecil Hotel under the alias “James Willys.” A week later, on November 18, hotel staff found him deceased in his room. “Willys” had ingested pills that hotel staff would find in his vest pocket.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a series of bank checks in the victim’s pockets showed that “James Willys” was actually W.K. Norton, a 46-year-old who’d been missing from his home in Manhattan Beach. Authorities also determined that the mysterious capsules responsible for Norton’s suicide were poison, though no reports have confirmed their chemical makeup.
Norton was reported missing around the same time he’d checked into The Cecil. Few details have been released about Norton or his death, so it’s impossible to determine the circumstances surrounding it.
September 17, 1932 – Benjamin Dodich, Suicide by Gunshot at the Cecil Hotel
As the Los Angeles Times explains, a maid discovered 25-year-old Benjamin Dodich dead in his room just hours after he’d checked in on September 17, 1932.
Dodich died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the right side of his head. Like many of the mysterious deaths at the Cecil Hotel, we still don’t know the motive behind Dodich’s suicide. He left no note, and the coverage of his death was limited to a single paragraph in the paper cited above.
July 26, 1934 – Sgt. Louis D. Borden, Suicide by Throat Slashing at the Cecil Hotel
On July 26, 1934, Cecil Hotel staff found former Sergeant Louis D. Borden dead in his room. He was 53 years old.
A Los Angeles Times article from the following day reported that Borden had slit his own throat with a razor. Investigators determined his death was a suicide based on a note he’d written about his failing health.
March 14, 1937 – Grace E. Magro, Suicide by Fall from the Cecil Hotel
On March 14, 1937, 25-year-old Grace E. Magro fell from her ninth-story window at the Cecil Hotel while her husband slept. Authorities were unsure whether it was accidental or suicide.
An article from the day following her death explains that Magro took out several telephone wires during her fall. Her broken body was wrapped in them when help arrived.
There was no suicide note, and her husband had no additional information for authorities. She later died at the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital.
January 9, 1938 – Roy Thompson, Suicide by Fall at the Cecil Hotel
This next case is similar to that of Grace Magro in many respects. According to The Daily News, 35-year-old firefighter Roy Thompson either fell or threw himself from the top floor of The Cecil Hotel, landing noisily on a second-floor skylight on January 9, 1938. The sound of his body hitting the overhead window caught the attention of hotel attendants, who called the police.
Articles about his death highlight Thompson’s issues with alcohol, suggesting that it may have contributed to his fall. However, there isn’t much evidence available, making it difficult to prove.
May 28, 1939 – Erwin C. Neblett, Suspected Suicide by Poisoning at the Cecil Hotel
It’s difficult to confirm what happened in the death of Erwin C. Neblett. The available accounts are all from unreliable sources in stories regurgitated across the media for sensationalism. So, take this entry with a grain of salt.
The story goes like this:
On May 28, 1939, hotel staff discovered 34-year-old Erwin Neblett after he’d taken what many believe to have been cyanide capsules. The man had been a Navy officer in life. Several sources claim he was 39 when he took his own life on May 5. Neblett’s gravestone, however, says he died on May 28 at the age of 34.
January 12, 1940 – Dorothy Seger, Suicide by Poisoning at the Cecil Hotel
On January 10, 1940, 45-year-old teacher Dorothy Seger checked into the Cecil Hotel under the name Evelyn Brent. Seger, like Neblett and Norton, ingested an unknown poison shortly afterward.
Based on suicide notes Seger had sent to her relatives prior to the incident, authorities ruled her death a suicide.
According to a contemporary article in the Daily News, Seger was still alive when authorities found her. She later died on January 12 at a local hospital.
September 1944 – Dorothy Jean Purcell and the Infant Murder at the Cecil Hotel
In early September 1944, according to the Los Angeles Times, police arrested 19-year-old Dorothy Purcell after she threw her unnamed newborn from a 15th-story window at the Cecil Hotel.
According to Purcell, she hadn’t known she was pregnant and panicked when labor began. Not wanting to wake her partner, she gave birth alone in the hotel room’s bathroom. Allegedly, Purcell believed the child was deceased, so she threw him out the window to conceal the entire incident. The autopsy, however, showed the infant had been born alive with “lungs having filled with air.”
Purcell was charged with murder, but according to historical accounts in James Bartlett’s book Gourmet Ghosts 2: More ghosts, murders, suicides and L.A. Weirdness, a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.
November 1947 – Robert Smith, Suicide by Jumping at the Cecil Hotel
As Death at the Cecil Hotel by Dale Richard Perelman explains, 35-year-old Robert Smith died after falling from the seventh floor sometime in November 1947. Like many deaths at the Cecil Hotel, Smith’s remains a mystery. At the time, the phrase “to fall” was often used to report suicide jumps to the public in a less shocking way. As such, it’s unclear whether Smith’s death was intentional or accidental.
October 22, 1954 – Helen Gurnee, Suicide by Fall at the Cecil Hotel
San Diego resident Helen Gurnee leaped from her seventh-story window on October 22, 1954, landing on the hotel’s marquee above numerous witnesses. According to the Los Angeles Times, a young man was hospitalized for hysteria after watching the event.
Gurnee had originally checked into the hotel under the name “Margaret Brown,” claiming she was from Denver. She had stayed in Room 704 until her death.
February 11, 1962 – Julia Francis Moore, Suicide by Fall at the Cecil Hotel
On February 11, 1962, 50-year-old Julia Francis Moore threw herself from the eighth floor of the building. The Los Angeles Times reported that her body landed in a second-floor light well, likely killing her on impact.
Authorities found various documents in Moore’s luggage that showed she had been on the move. Moore had money in a bank account in Illinois and two home addresses in St. Louis. Not much else is known about the woman or why she chose Los Angeles, of all places, to end her life.
The trend of jumping from tall buildings isn’t unique to Cecil Hotel deaths, but it’s certainly a prevalent mode of suicide among the hotel’s patrons.
October 12, 1962 – Pauline Otton, Suicide by Jumping at the Cecil Hotel (Collateral Death of George Giannini)
October 12, 1962, marked the only known double death at the Cecil Hotel. Pauline Otton, 27 years old, jumped from the ninth floor, killing not only herself but also 65-year-old George Giannini. Her body landed on him while he was on the sidewalk, causing fatal injuries.
You’ll find speculation about this case around the web. Some media sources have tried to fill in details around Otton’s suicide, saying she’d been arguing with her husband or was filled with despair. Others have suggested that Giannini was a jumper as well or that he fell from a window due to Otton’s actions. None of these claims, however, are corroborated by contemporary news reports.
June 4, 1964 – "Pigeon Goldie" Osgood, Homicide at the Cecil Hotel
A hotel staff member distributing phone books discovered 79-year-old Goldie Osgood beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed, and strangled in her quarters at the Cecil Hotel on June 4, 1964. This occurred within an hour after she’d returned to her room from an outing. According to interviews in the Los Angeles Times, Osgood was a beloved tenant of the Cecil and the community. Locals even nicknamed her “Pigeon Goldie” for her hobby of feeding pigeons at the nearby park.
Police found Jacques Ehlinger, 29, covered in blood and wandering Skid Row shortly after Osgood’s murder. They arrested him but couldn’t tie him to the crime, which remains unsolved.
December 20, 1975 – Unknown Woman (Alison Lowell), Suicide by Jumping at the Cecil Hotel
On December 16, 1975, a young woman checked into the Cecil Hotel under the name “Alison Lowell.” On December 20, as the Los Angeles Medical Examiner notes, “Alison” either jumped or fell from her 12th-story window. The Doe Network also explains that “Alison Lowell” was an alias and that the woman’s identity is still unknown.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), investigators discovered a Greyhound bus ticket in her room dated December 15. Both of Jane Doe’s wrists bore scars, which has led to speculation about previous self-harm and suicide attempts.
September 1, 1992 – Unknown Male, Fall at the Cecil Hotel
The body of a young man was found in the alleyway behind the Cecil Hotel on September 1, 1992. According to the county medical examiner’s report, it’s unknown whether he jumped, fell, or was pushed. The report states he was in his early twenties with a scar on his right hand, but that’s all authorities know about the victim.
February 19, 2013 – Elisa Lam, Mysterious Death at the Cecil Hotel (Accidental Drowning)
The most well-known death at the Cecil Hotel is that of Elisa Lam. This case became a media sensation due to its recency and the victim’s erratic behavior.
On January 31, 2013, 21-year-old Elisa Lam went missing. On February 19, after hotel guests complained of low water pressure, a maintenance worker discovered Lam’s body in a water tank on the building’s roof. Her remains were nude and partially decomposed.
Mystery quickly mounted as footage of her erratic behavior in the hotel elevator went viral.
Lam suffered from bipolar disorder, but forensic pathologist Dr. Jason Tovar stated that the levels of medication in her bloodstream were low at the time of her death. During the investigation, Lam’s family revealed that she often skipped her medication, causing anxiety and hallucinations. This could explain why she climbed into the cistern.
What remains unproven is how she accessed the roof, though investigators believe she likely used the fire escape. Questions about case details aside, the Los Angeles Medical Examiner ruled Lam’s death an accidental drowning.
June 12, 2015 – Unknown Male, Suicide at the Cecil Hotel
The last known death at the Cecil Hotel occurred on June 12, 2015. A 28-year-old John Doe fell to the ground in an alley behind the building. Authorities are unsure of what caused the fall or whether the man fell from the Cecil’s rooftop. According to the hotel manager, John Doe wasn’t a registered guest at the hotel.
Authorities have yet to release his identity.
Some thoughts on the Cecil Hotel Deaths
It’s easy for urban legend to overshadow the facts in a history as dark as the Cecil Hotel’s. People often attribute the deaths at the Cecil to the spiritual or mysterious, but ignoring more rational explanations can erase or devalue the stories of those who died at the hotel.
Chances are there’s no evil spirit or devil behind the deaths. Rather, the Cecil was an affordable place for people to stay when they were down on their luck. It was located in a rough, highly populated district of Los Angeles. The area surrounding the building has always had a high crime rate, and that trend continues today. When we consider the hotel tragedies from this perspective, much of the mystery disappears. Add to these factors the elevated level of media coverage of Cecil Hotel deaths, and the hotel’s route to myth becomes clear.
In truth, the deaths at the Cecil Hotel reflect the levels of crime and poverty, as well as the societal conditions around the time each death occurred. Understanding this allows us to view these circumstances through a lens of compassion—one that these victims truly deserve.
