America's Little Black Book

Bryn Curt James Hammond is an ex-child model who made the transition into directing, writing and producing in the 90’s.

From 2005 he was co-owner and editor of GZ Magazine and has been thanked by various directors for his contribution towards making their films a success. These directors included Ryan Nicholson (Andromeda, Warcraft) and Tim Sullivan (Hood of Horror, 2001 Maniacs).

Bryn has appeared as himself on Best Worst Film documentary and Celebrity Ghost Hunt featuring Adam Oakley (Tool Academy), Laura Alicia Summers (Ex On The Beach) and Bex Shiner (Big Brother 9).

Bryn has since turned his skills to journalism and is the author of A Case for Murder: Anna Nicole Smith Files, Clueless eBook Guide 2 Food & Dining and A Case for Murder: Brittany Murphy Files (to be released later this year).

Recent books from Miami Fox Publishing

A Case for Murder: Anna Nicole Smith Files

Clueless eBook Guide 2 Food & Dining

Coming soon:

A Porn Star’s Diary

A Case for Murder: Brittany Murphy Files

A Case for Murder: Marilyn Monroe Files

Evil Minds: Ronald Defeo

Dark History of the Cecil Hotel

Demon Reunion

Demon Reunion 2

Lamia

Clueless eBook Guide 2 Food & Dining (Wheat-Free)

Clueless eBook Guide 2 Food & Dining (Vegetarian)

Clueless eBook Guide 2 Healthy Eating

Clueless eBook Guide 2 Losing Weight

The Complete History of The Howling

Critters Franchise

Night Of The Demons History

The Sunset Beach Story

Celebrity Scandals 101

AMERICA’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK

AN ALTERNATIVE TOUR GUIDE TO AMERICA

Bryn Curt James Hammond

Editor: Paul Knappett

Published by Miami Fox Publishing

Copyright Miami Fox Publishing 2016

Smashwords Edition

This e-book is licensed for your personal use and enjoyment only. This e-book may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this e-book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this e-book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please visit your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover photo: Miami Fox Publishing

Back Cover Photo: Miami Fox Publishing

ISBN: 978–0–99335-093-1

www.miamifoxpublishing.co.uk

+ 44 (0)77318 81254

+ 44 (0) 7974 613 975

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Hotels / Motels

3. Homes / Apartments

4. Eateries

5. Shopping

6. Airports

7. Places / Locations

8. Theatres / Cinemas / Museums

9. Nightlife

INTRODUCTION

America’s history doesn’t go back all that far. Christopher Columbus was credited with ‘discovering’ the New World for Europeans in 1492, even though the Norse explored it almost 500 years previously. What American history there is, however, is both menacing and deliciously dark, and can still shock and thrill the world today.

How many club promoters do you know that hack up their drug dealer and dump him in the Hudson River, or hotel guests that drink water contaminated by a corpse floating face down a few floors above?

The book you are now reading was inspired by the simplicity of a tourist guide, but it is at the same time considerably different and utterly gruesome. It features nearly 200 addresses, and each location gives you, the reader, a full digest of the murder or scandal that occurred there, with an informative and detailed account for when you visit.

This book covers crimes, scandals and murders from LA to New York, and even Mesa, Arizona, where Jodi Arias murdered her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander by stabbing him 29 times and then slitting his throat before shooting him.

Although the book does not claim to mention every grizzly American location, it does provide the reader with many of the more well-documented examples, as well as some lesser known ones such as the Brooklyn apartment where Michael Brea beheaded his mother with a Samurai sword.

It gives you an insight into both the victims’ and the perpetrators’ lives, tracing their steps and other locations they attended before the event that put their names on the murder map.

Explore cases like The Manson Family, Elisa Lam, Brittany Murphy, Jonathan Brandis and lesser-known celebrities that met even more gruesome ends.

This is the ideal reference guide on which to base your grisly tour of the Dark Side of America.

Sex, Drugs and Murder the American way. Don’t have nightmares!

NOTE: America’s Little Black Book is designed to be entertaining to read and easy to use. The eBook has been divided into the following sections and you should be able to find whatever you need in one of them.

Please be aware that many of the locations we have included are for entertainment purpose only and we do not condone trespassing nor do we encourage illegal acts that may cause distress.

Miami Fox Publishing has done its best to ensure the accuracy of all the information in America’s Little Black Book; however, we can accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by travellers as a result of information or addresses contained in the guide.

Back to Contents

HOTELS / MOTELS

The accommodation included in this eBook has been selected based on unusual history and scandals rather than star rating or location. If you are seeking accommodation within America, please visit the hotel or motel’s website included within the eBook for further information on their accommodation. America doesn’t have many hostels outside major cities, however you will find cheap hotels and motels, such as Motel 6 or Stay on Main, costing from $30 per night. Hotels in most cities start around $70 per night, although in major cities like NYC they start closer to $100. The US is vast, and prices fluctuate depending on what region you’re in, so check out the specific hotel or motel’s detailed information on their official website before booking.

TIP: Before booking your hotel it’s a great idea to sign up for a hotel credit card so you can use those points when you travel. This is especially helpful in big cities like New York. The following cards currently offer the largest sign-up bonuses: American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, American Express Platinum, British Airways Premium Plus American Express and the Hilton HHonors Platinum Visa. Most hotels charge parking fees if you have hired a car, so adjust your budget accordingly and enquire at your hotel or motel before arriving.

CECIL HOTEL

Cecil Hotel, aka Stay on Main

640 South Main Street,

Downtown LA,

Los Angeles,

CA 90014

www.stayonmainhotellosangeles.com

Stay on Main, once called the Cecil Hotel, has an extremely dark history. It was home to murderers, maniacs and ghosts. Some say the Cecil is anything but your average hotel, and it’s believed to be cursed. Since its construction in 1927 it has been the focus of suicides, murders and mystery disappearances.

In 1985 the Cecil was home to not only infamous serial killer Richard Ramirez, but also fellow killer Jack Unterweger. Over the years it’s also been the site of a string of strange deaths, including Elisa Lam and Pauline Otton, and most recently a 28-year-old man plunged to his death and died on the pavement outside the 600-room budget hotel.

Recently the hotel has had a minor makeover and re-branded itself as a hip boutique hotel and hostel, boasting that it is surrounded by many of the newest and hottest restaurants, bars and night clubs in downtown Los Angeles.

Stay on Main also offers a menu approach to its accommodation selection. Depending upon budget and lifestyle, guests can allegedly choose from a wide array of room types and amenities, from private rooms with private baths to shared rooms with shared baths down the hall. However, it makes no mention of welcoming all walks of life including serial killers.

Stay on Main also states it is perfect for in-the-know 18-30 year old international and domestic travellers looking for modern, upscale accommodation on a budget.

Reviews of the hotel haven’t, however, been positive. Dan’a R said, Not in a good area, period. Do not be fooled into thinking this place is closed. It is now called Stay on Main. Until security is stepped up in this place I would not suggest it to anyone. This is not in an area you even want to stay. No tourist attractions and loads of sketchy areas nearby. It also has a very unsavoury past.

Another, Sarah B, said, "Just walking through the lobby towards the check-in desk the abundance of flies lingering around are a DEAD giveaway that you should’ve booked on airbnb or found any other accommodation available.

This place is SRO in a neighbourhood that is quickly being gentrified, but the owners of the Cecil don’t appear to have an interest in keeping up with the Jones’s."

Richard Ramirez, dubbed the ‘Night Stalker’, was born in El Paso, Texas, on February 29 1960. Over a two-year rampage he raped and tortured more than 25 victims and murdered more than a dozen, most of them in their own homes, while residing at the Cecil Hotel. Ramirez was turned on to satanic worship at an early age by his cousin, a solider who had returned from the war in Vietnam. Following a four-year trial, in 1989 Ramirez was convicted of 13 killings. He received the death penalty and was sent to San Quentin Prison in California. He died on June 7 2013 at the age of 53.

Jack Unterweger was born on August 16 1950 in Styria, Austria. Abused and abandoned as a child, he went on to murder an 18-year-old sex worker. While in prison he became a writer, and he was championed by some Austrian intellectuals. He was released, only to kill nine more sex workers in Europe and Los Angeles. Unterweger stayed at the hotel in 1991 for five weeks. During his stay he murdered three prostitutes, who would enter his room via the fire escape for a measly $30. He was convicted of the murders and found dead on June 29 1994, having committed suicide.

Other strange deaths at the hotel include Helen Gurnee, who was staying at the hotel in 1954 and jumped from her 7th floor window onto the hotel’s marquee below.

In 1962 Julia Moore jumped from her 8th floor room; no suicide note was found, only a bus ticket and bank book with $1800.

Also in 1962 Pauline Otton jumped to her death after arguing with her estranged husband. She leaped out of the 9th floor window after her husband left to get something to eat.

In 1964 Goldie Osgood was found in her room, stabbed, strangled and raped.

NOTABLE EVENTS:

. Richard Ramirez

. Jack Unterweger

. Helen Gurnee

. Julia Moore

. Pauline Otton

. Goldie Osgood

ELISA LAM

Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian student studying in Vancouver, was born on April 30 1991. In January 2013 she embarked alone on what she intended to be a tour of numerous cities on the west coast of the USA.

Beginning her holiday in San Diego, she visited the zoo and wrote about the city on her blog, then continued on, arriving in Los Angeles on January 26. There, she checked into the Cecil Hotel.

During her time at the hotel guests that were sharing the room with her reported her strange behaviour, and she was moved by hotel staff to a separate room away from other guests.

After five days of sightseeing, Elisa was scheduled to check out and continue her journey to Santa Cruz. On this day though, her parents did not receive their daily phone call from their daughter. Finding this uncharacteristic of Elisa, they contacted the LA police to report her disappearance.

Hotel staff said she was alone on the morning of her disappearance and that she visited a nearby bookstore. The manager of the bookstore described her as outgoing, very lively, very friendly, and said that she had come in to buy gifts for her family.

Police proceeded to search the hotel with scent-tracking dogs, but were unable to search the building in great detail due to the absence of any probable cause that a crime had been committed.

Elisa was allegedly staying on the 4th floor of the Cecil, in room 412, and a guest that was staying on the 3rd floor told media that he heard a loud noise, like something fell on the floor, where Elisa was staying on the night she was last seen. Another witness staying on the 4th floor at the same time as Elisa said that the police never questioned him when searching for her.

On February 16 the LAPD released a surveillance video from the hotel, taken on February 1. The unsettling video depicts Elisa in one of the hotel’s elevators, acting in an extremely bizarre manner. It shows her peeking in and out of the elevator, hiding in the corner, pressing multiple buttons and erratically gesturing and dancing in the hallway outside the elevator. She then exits the elevator, and the door slides shut and re-opens several times before the video ends.

Shortly afterwards guests at the hotel began to complain of strange tasting, discoloured water and low water pressure in their rooms. Employees investigated the plumbing of the building, and this led them to a gruesome discovery in the water tanks on the roof of the building: Lam’s body was floating face down.

SEE ALSO:

. Places / Locations

LINKS TO:

. Black Dahlia

. Ben Woolfe

. Lady Gaga

. Dr Louis and Delphine LaLaurie

INSPIRED:

. American Horror Story

BLACK DAHLIA

Elizabeth Short was born on July 29 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts. Early in 1943, she relocated with her father to LA, and that same year she was arrested for underage drinking – think Lohan of the 40’s.

On the morning of January 15 1947 Short’s nude body was found in two pieces on a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue, midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street (at 34.0164°N 118.333°W) in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.

A local resident discovered the body at 10:00 am as she was walking with her three-year-old daughter. Prior to her death it was alleged Short was last seen leaving the Cecil Hotel.

SEE ALSO:

. Homes / Apartments

. Places / Locations

. Eateries

LINKS TO:

. Elisa Lam

. Ben Woolfe

. Lady Gaga

. Dr Louis and Delphine LaLaurie

INSPIRED:

. American Horror Story

JASON BROWN

Motel 6

8480 Edes Ave,

Oakland,

CA 94621

www.motel6.com

On Thursday November 19 2015 18-year-old Jason Brown shot himself at Motel 6. The teenager had allegedly committed three deadly shootings in three different cities dating back to September of that year. After police tracked him down, he barricaded himself in the 2-star motel, ignoring orders from police to surrender.

At around 5:50 pm, Oakland police were called to the motel on the 8400 block to handle a barricaded suspect wanted for homicide in another city. Officers spent several hours trying to talk Brown into giving up. They even brought his mother to the scene to coax him out of the room peacefully.

Officers entered the room at around 11:30 pm after hearing gunshots inside and found Brown dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

CHASEY LAIN

The Venetian

3355 S Las Vegas Blvd,

Las Vegas,

NV 89109

www.venetian.com

Well, this is hardly a shocking scandal but more of a ‘WOW, really?’ moment!

Chasey Lain shot to fame in the 90’s as a hardcore porn actress and became part of popular culture after she made the transition from porn star to mainstream movie actress in Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight.

Shortly after her Hollywood makeover