Cecil Hotel: How many deaths have happened there?

12 February 2021, 16:29

Cecil Hotel Manager describes what it's like to run the hotel

By Katie Louise Smith

From its early beginnings, Cecil Hotel was plagued with death and murder but how many people have actually died there?

Thanks to Netflix's new true crime series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, people are now hooked on the history behind one of downtown Los Angeles' most infamous locations.

The Vanishing at Cecil Hotel opens by recounting the tragic story of Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old student who went missing in 2013, and was found three weeks later in a water tank on the roof of the hotel. Then, viewers quickly learn that the same hotel has a long history of death, murder and suicide.

In the series, the Cecil Hotel is described as a "lawless den", "Hotel Death" and a place where "serial killers let their hair down". The trailer also asks the question, "Is there a room here that maybe someone hasn't died in?"

Since its opening in 1927, it's been plagued by hundreds and hundreds of gruesome and tragic deaths. But just how many deaths have actually happened there?

How many deaths have happened at the Cecil Hotel?

How many people have died at the Cecil Hotel?

There are around 17 deaths listed on the Cecil Hotel's Wikipedia page, including Elisa Lam's, Pigeon Goldie's and a number of other tragic passings. However, in the series, general manager Amy Price explains that in her 10 years working at the Cecil, she saw around 80 deaths.

The hotel first opened in 1927, 80 years before Amy began working there. It's unclear exactly how many deaths occurred at the hotel, but it sounds like it could be well over 100 based on those numbers.

Watch the trailer for Netflix's true crime doc about the Cecil Hotel

The first death at the Cecil Hotel is reported to have happened in 1927, the same year it opened. 52-year-old Percy Ormond Cook took his own life after he failed to reconcile with his wife and child. He shot himself in his hotel room.

Many of the deaths that happened within the hotel were either suicides, murders or accidental overdoses. A lot of the wider reported deaths that happened in the Cecil are also detailed in the series.

In June 1964, "Pigeon Goldie" Osgood was found dead in her ransacked hotel room. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and murdered. A suspect was arrested but was later cleared of the crime. To this day, her murder remains unsolved.

Elisa Lam's 2013 death is also one of the more recent tragedies to happen at the Cecil Hotel. Elisa went missing while staying at the hotel and her body was later found in one of the water tanks on the roof of the building. The exact details surrounding her death and disappearance raised a lot of questions but it was said that she died as a result of accidental drowning.

Cecil Hotel and Stay on Main are now closed for renovations. Picture: Netflix

Did Richard Ramirez ever kill anyone at the Cecil Hotel?

In the docuseries, the Cecil is described as a place where "serial killers let their hair down".

Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, stayed at the Cecil Hotel during his terrifying killing spree in Los Angeles in the mid '80s. It's said he would return to the hotel, clothes soaked in blood, and walk back to his room after his murders. Because of the kind of place the Cecil was, no one seemed to bat an eyelid.

It's not known if Ramirez ever killed anyone at the Cecil Hotel. Most of his murders during that time took place in the victim's own homes.