Cecil Hotel

It is a budget hotel with 600 rooms and has a reputation for hosting transients for $US470 a month.

Since its construction in 1927 it has been the focus of suicides, murders, mystery disappearances and serial killers. Now the infamous haunt is the site of a ghost hunt.

This photo was taken by resident Koston Alderete, showing a mysterious figure hanging outside a fourth-floor window of the hotel.

The home of serial killers

In the past, the Cecil Hotel was home to 'Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez, an American serial killer, rapist and burglar during 1984-85. The satanist's crimes terrorised Los Angeles, before he was finally captured and convicted of 13 murders.

He lived on the Cecil's top floor in a $14-a-night room as he slaughtered his victims.

Richard Schave who conducts crime tours of the Cecil, told CNN: He was "just dumping his bloody clothes in the dumpster at the end of his evening and going in the back entrance".

Ramirez was sentenced to death in a gas chamber in 1989, and on receiving his sentence showed no remorse, stating: "Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland."

Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger also stayed at the hotel in 1991 for five weeks. During this time he murdered three prostitutes, who would enter his room via the fire escape for a measly $30.

This occurred after he had been jailed and released in Austria for similar murders. He was released as an example for rehabilitation and was hired by an Austrian magazine to be a crime writer in Los Angeles.

The disturbed crime journalist is believed to have been paying homage to his subject, Richard Ramirez, when he beat, sexually assaulted and then strangled the women with their own bra straps.

 

Suicide tower and bizarre deaths

The horrors started long before for the Cecil. During the 50s and 60s, the hotel was known as a suicide hotspot.

In 1962, Pauline Otton, 27, threw herself to her death from a ninth-floor window after arguing with her husband. She landed on pedestrian George Gianinni, 65, on the street below, killing him instantly. She was just one of numerous guests who ended their lives while staying at the run-down hotel.

In an unsolved murder in 1964, Pigeon woman, Goldie Osgood, who enjoyed feeding the birds in a nearby square, was found dead in her room. She had been stabbed, strangled and raped - and then had her room ransacked.

Tour guide Richard Schave put the disturbing events in history down to the crowd at the hotel.

"This was just a place where people who were really down on their luck were going," Schave said. "These hotels are filled with people who are at the edge of being integrated in society."

 

Mysterious death of Elisa Lam

 
a corpse was discovered in a water tank at the hotel after guests complained of foul-smelling black water coming from their taps.

In February 2013, a maintenance worker, on investigating the water cisterns on the roof of the Cecil, discovered the decomposed body of Canadian tourist Elisa Lam at the bottom of the tank.

Residents had brushed their teeth, drank and bathed in the water for 19 days.

A guest at the hotel said the water "tasted horrible" with "a very funny ... disgusting taste. It's a very strange taste. I can barely describe it."

The mysterious death of Lam added to the horrific history of the hotel.

The 21-year-old checked into the Cecil on January 26, 2013, and she went missing on February 1.

CCTV footage released of Lam shows her acting bizarrely, hiding in the lift, and then pressing all the buttons before peering out strangely. She eventually exits the lift and gestures to someone - or something - outside the doors.

After this, Lam vanished. Her body was discovered in the tank on the secured and alarmed rooftop over two weeks later.

How Lam got to the roof is a mystery, as law enforcement said it can only be accessed via a locked door and fire escape.

To an observer it looks as if Lam has consumed drugs when she is filmed in the lift, yet no substances were found in her system during an autopsy.

The coroner ruled her death "accidental due to drowning", yet many questions remain unanswered. What actually happened to Lam may never be known.