Unpacking The Eerie

4. A Lethal Location Pt. 1: Accident, Cover Up or Cult?

Unpacking the Eerie Episode 5

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0:00 | 1:23:11

TOPIC: Cecil Hotel//Elisa Lam 

This Halloweek, we begin to explore the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, CA and the very mysterious death of Elisa Lam. This disturbing case was deemed an accident, but was it? Unpack the eerie with us this week as we dig deep into the life of Elisa Lam, the suspicious circumstances that surrounded her untimely death in February 2013 and the location where it took place: a site that has seen a shocking number of unnatural deaths since its grand opening in the 1920s.

This is the first episode in a series about the Cecil Hotel.

CW: ableism, suicide, sexual, physical and racial violence, mental illness

Sources:

Articles/Blogposts/Websites 

  1. https://www.countryliving.com/life/travel/a45235/creepy-history-cecil-hotel-los-angeles/
  2. https://allthatsinteresting.com/cecil-hotel-los-angeles
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Hotel_(Los_Angeles)
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_and_violence_at_the_Cecil_Hotel
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongva (Learn more about indigenous LA  here)
  6. http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi06e.hp
  7. https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/chinese-massacre-1871
  8. https://www.vice.com/en/article/yvezpv/hospitals-are-dumping-mentally-ill-patients-in-los-angeles-skid-row
  9. https://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2587-6-morbid-facts-about-people-dying-in-hotel-rooms.html
  10. https://medium.com/@jddean/the-serial-killers-who-haunted-the-cecil-hotel-5586e6f7d2d1
  11. https://abc13.com/archive/9412802/ |

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Theme Song Title: Creepy Mood | Artist Name: Oleg Fedak

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