Tag: True Crime
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Clifford Lambert’s Former House
A couple of months ago, my favorite desert radio personalities “Bulldog” Bill Feingold and Kevin Holmes interviewed Tyson Wrensch, co-author of Until Someone Gets Hurt. The book, which chronicles the disappearance and murder of 74-year-old Palm Springs retiree Clifford Lambert at the hands of five San Francisco-based grifters (27-year-old playboy Daniel Garcia, 26-year-old Nepalese expat…
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George Nader’s Former Home
Earlier this year, while doing research on the various Coachella Valley-area houses formerly owned by pianist Liberace, I came across a blurb in fave book Palm Springs Confidential about the city’s first ever triple homicide, which took place in a Las Palmas Estates residence that once belonged to actor George Nader. After wiping the drool…
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The Spot Where the Black Dahlia’s Body Was Found
One Haunted Hollywood locale that I had wanted to stalk pretty much ever since first moving to Southern California in 2000 was the spot where the dismembered body of Elizabeth Short, aka the “Black Dahlia,” was found on the morning of January 15th, 1947. Over six decades later and the case is still one of…
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The Cecil Hotel
Los Angeles magazine’s The Crime Issue had me absolutely drooling when I received it back in July, especially Steve Erickson’s article “Sleep Tight,” which detailed the bizarre 2013 death of 21-year-old Canadian tourist Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel in downtown L.A. I was glued to every single word Erickson wrote and, upon finishing the…
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The Former Menendez Family Home
Just around the corner from Vincente Minnelli’s former abandoned mansion (which I blogged about yesterday) is the palatial Elm Drive residence where on August 20th, 1989, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez (then 22- and 19-years-old, respectively) shot and killed their parents, entertainment company executive Jose and housewife Mary Louise, aka “Kitty.” (I honestly cannot believe…
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Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Cafe
A few years ago I read a fabulous murder mystery called Shamus In The Green Room written by one of my favorite mystery authors, Susan Kandel. A significant piece of action in the novel takes place at the real life location of one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history. That…
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"Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli"
My title might be a bit in poor taste, but it seems Robert Blake followed just that advice on a fateful day back in May 2001 after dining at Vitello’s Restaurant in Studio City. Although a jury found him not guilty, it is pretty widely assumed that Blake murdered his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley after…