Cecil Hotel — Los Angeles's hotel of death and dark history

The Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, now rebranded as Stay on Main, has one of the darkest reputations of any hotel in America. Built in 1927, the hotel has been connected to at least 16 deaths — including suicides, murders, and the infamous 2013 death of Elisa Lam, whose body was found in the rooftop water tank after hotel guests complained about the taste and color of their tap water. Serial killers Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker) and Jack Unterweger both stayed at the Cecil during their killing sprees. The hotel's supernatural reputation matches its criminal history. Guests have reported hearing screams in the hallways, seeing shadow figures in their rooms, and experiencing sleep paralysis with the sensation of a malevolent presence watching them. The elevators behave erratically, stopping at floors with no one waiting. Some guests have described feeling hands pushing them or touching their faces in the dark. The building's proximity to Skid Row and its history of housing transient residents have contributed to the despair that seems to permeate its walls. The Cecil's story was dramatized in the Netflix documentary 'Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel' and in American Horror Story, cementing its place in American dark history.