Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post today – about Pawnee City Hall from Parks and Recreation – on LAMag.com. (My articles typically get posted in the early afternoon hours.)
Bombay Beach
Out of all of the Salton Sea townships that I stalked while my best friend, Robin, was visiting in March, Bombay Beach was, without a doubt, my favorite. Situated about twenty miles south of the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club (which I blogged about here), the tiny census-designated place is made up of about two hundred homes and trailers, a great number of which are abandoned.
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At 223 feet below sea level, Bombay Beach has the distinction of being the lowest city in America. It is also, according to this July 2013 article, the most-filmed location in the entire Imperial County.
Originally set to be a Riviera-like resort destination on the shores of the Salton Sea, Bombay Beach suffered the same fate as its neighboring townships. As the sea’s toxicity and salinity increased in the late 1960s, the fish and bird population died off. It was not long before animal carcasses covered the once-sandy beaches and the smell of their decaying bodies permeated the air. Many residents vacated the region. Then, when the storms of 1976 and 1977 hit and caused massive flooding, even more people fled. Oddly though, some stayed behind and still call Bombay Beach home to this day.
The tiny, 0.9-square-mile township currently boasts about three hundred residents.
The abandoned properties remain, though.
It is this juxtaposition that makes the place so eerie.
Also adding to the creepiness factor is the fact that many of those who fled walked away not only from their properties, but all of their belongings, as well. Forgotten sofas, toys and even cars can be seen strewn about the landscape.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s the Friends couch visible through the window below. 
Situated in the midst of this apocalyptic–like setting is a church . . .
. . . two mini-marts (I only got a photograph of one) . . .
. . . and a “fireside lounge” named Blues After Dark, which is currently for sale. There’s also a restaurant, the Ski Inn, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
The entire area was just begging to be photographed.
Yep, the graffiti pictured below reads, “Abandon all hope ye who enter.”
Prior to visiting Bombay Beach, I had never even heard of the place, so I was absolutely shocked to discover how often it has been utilized for filming. I guess its immortalization onscreen should not have come as a surprise, though, considering its vastly unique and desolate landscape.
In the 1990 made-for-television movie The Great Los Angeles Earthquake, Bombay Beach was said to be the site of numerous foreshocks, but it does not appear that any actual filming took place there.
In 2008, chef Anthony Bourdain visited Bombay Beach to film the Season 4 episode of his Travel Channel reality series Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations titled “U.S. Southwest.”
During his sojourn, Bourdain partook of a patty melt at Bombay Beach’s sole restaurant, the Ski Inn.
The episode makes for a fascinating watch and is available for purchase via Amazon Instant Video.
A 2011 documentary was also made about the township. Appropriately titled Bombay Beach, the film was directed by Israeli filmmaker Alma Har’el and followed the lives of three Bombay Beach residents. It won “Best Documentary Feature” at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award.
You can watch the Bombay Beach trailer by clicking below.
In 2013, Jeremy Wade shot a promo for the fifth season of his Animal Planet series, River Monsters, at Bombay Beach.
You can watch that promo by clicking below.
Bombay Beach was used extensively in the 2013 music video for Austrian singer Christina Sturmer’s song “Millionen Lichter” (translation – “A Million Lights”). The video was shot on the shoreline . . .
. . . throughout the town itself . . .
. . . and in front of several Bombay Beach houses.
The motel that appeared in “Millionen Lichter” cannot be found in Bombay Beach, however, but about 170 miles away. It is the Four Aces movie set in Palmdale, which has appeared in countless productions over the years and which I have stalked, but have yet to blog about.
You can watch the “Millionen Lichter” video by clicking below. It’s actually a really catchy song, although I don’t understand a word of it.
I was absolutely shocked to discover while doing research for this post that the Season 6 episode of The Mentalist titled “The Desert Rose” was filmed on location at Bombay Beach. “The Desert Rose” was one of my favorite episodes of the show ever, so how I did not recognize the place when we visited is beyond me.
In “The Desert Rose,” Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) are sent to the Salton Sea to investigate the murder of a real estate developer named Brooke Yardley (Alex Daniels), whose body was found on the shores of Bombay Beach. The spot where the body was found is located near Avenue D & 5th Street.
While in town, Lisbon and Jane pop into the Borrego Gap Diner, which is actually the Ski Inn, Anthony Bourdain’s former stomping grounds.
Sadly, because I did not realize its significance at the time, I only got one partial photograph of the eatery.
The inside of the Ski Inn (which you can check out some pictures of here) does bear a striking resemblance to the diner shown on The Mentalist, but I do not believe any interior filming actually took place on the premises. As you can see in this photograph, not only are there structural differences between the two, but the flooring shown in the episode does not match the restaurant’s actual flooring.
While we were driving around Bombay Beach, Robin mentioned how much it reminded him of Sandy Shores from Grand Theft Auto V. I had no clue what he was talking about at the time, but was floored to discover while reading a Wikipedia article later that day that Bombay Beach had served as the inspiration for the town in the game! I should mention here that Robin is not into filming locations AT ALL, so this was a first – and I couldn’t have been more excited about it. I swear I’ll make a stalker out of him yet! I ended up buying the Grim Cheaper a PlayStation 3 and Grand Theft Auto V for his birthday shortly after Robin’s visit and, in our excitement to see Bombay Beach onscreen, we stole a boat in the opening scene of the game and drove it right up to Sandy Shores. Now we are kind of stuck there, unsure of what to do. Sure enough, though, the place does look exactly like Bombay Beach.
Of the Sandy Shores design, Grand Theft Auto V art director Aaron Garbut said in a 2014 interview with the Edge, “We did know the [biographies] for the three characters right at the start, so we knew we wanted to create an area for Trevor out in the sticks. Towards the beginning of preproduction, I met up with [Rockstar president] Sam [Houser] in LA, and we spent a week together driving about, just exploring and talking. During that trip, we drove out into the desert and eventually ended up visiting Salton Sea [in California]. We went to an amazing spot called Bombay Beach and expected a real-life Trevor to burst out on us at any second. When the full reference trip was organized, we sent a team out to Salton Sea for a few days.” LOVE it!
On an abandoned sites side-note – I just learned about an abandoned water park located on the grounds of none other than the Walt Disney World Resort! Known as River Country, the park was shuttered in 2001 and has sat rotting ever since. Man, would I love to see it in person! You can check out some great photographs of the property in its current state here.
For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Bombay Beach is located on the eastern side of the Salton Sea, about twenty miles north of Niland and twenty miles south of the North Shore Yacht Club. The Ski Inn, aka the Borrego Gap Diner from The Mentalist, is located at 9596 Avenue A.
The Salton Sea
About fifty miles southeast of Palm Springs lies the Salton Sea, a former resort destination that I had wanted to stalk ever since seeing Troy Paiva’s haunting images of the place on his website Lost America. Due to the fact that it is largely abandoned and hence lacking in public restrooms, I hesitated making the trek out there. (I suffer from an abnormally small bladder.) Then, while my best friend Robin was in town in mid-March, the Grim Cheaper convinced me that it was time to finally make the trip. Sadly, as we discovered, many of the abandoned structures that Paiva had pictured on his site were demolished in 2008. Being there still turned out to be quite an experience, though, to say the least. [There are several abandoned and semi-abandoned towns lining the shores of the Salton Sea – Bombay Beach, Niland, and Slab City (yes, that’s a place), just to name a few. We hit them all. This post will solely be focused on the North Shore and the Sea itself, with future posts about the other areas to come.]
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The Salton Sea was created accidentally in 1905 when runoff from the Colorado River broke through levees and flooded a large valley known as the Salton Sink. The deluge, which lasted for two years, left behind a 380-square-mile inland sea (the largest inland body of water in California – yes, it’s bigger than Lake Tahoe!) situated 228 feet below sea level. It was dubbed the “Salton Sea.”
Developers, recognizing the potential of the picturesque coastal site, started building resorts and marinas (including the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club – pictured above and below – which was designed by legendary architect Albert Frey in 1962) in the region in the 1950s. It wasn’t long before the Salton Sea became a luxury getaway destination and even celebrities flocked to the area for fishing, sunbathing and waterskiing. Just a few of the stars who spent time there include Sonny Bono, Frank Sinatra, Rock Hudson, Dean Martin, The Beach Boys, The Marx Brothers and Jerry Lewis.
The region’s tenure as a resort destination was short-lived. Agricultural runoff, containing fertilizer, pesticide and salt, from nearby farms continued to flow to the Salton Sea, at the same rate that the expanse was naturally evaporating. Because neither salt nor fertilizer evaporate, the salinity of the lake, as well as its toxicity, increased year after year. This caused a large growth of algae, which drained the sea of oxygen, which in turn killed off the fish population. Dead fish remains began to wash ashore, littering the once beautiful beaches. Birds wound up feeding on those dead fish and, in turn, also died. The thousands upon thousands of animal carcasses that papered the shoreline created a horrific smell that permeated the area. People started to flee. Then, in 1976 and 1977, two large storms hit the region, submerging many of the marinas, clubs, motels and neighborhoods. Residents vacated the Salton Sea in droves, leaving behind homes, cars and other structures. They were never to return.
It was the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club, which was shuttered and left abandoned in 1984, as well as the neighboring North Shore Motel and its pool, and a large Texaco gas station sign that I most wanted to see. Sadly, the motel, pool and Texaco sign are all long gone and the Yacht Club was completely refurbished in 2010 (it now serves as a special events center). You can check out some photographs of what they used to look like here.
Today, the abandoned sites are few and far between.
The ones that still stand are sufficiently eerie, though.
From afar, the Salton Sea is quite beautiful, with bright blue waters.
A closer glance reveals that beauty to be an illusion, though. In reality, the waters of the Salton Sea are a murky brown. The blue hue is simply a reflection of the sky.
The white shoreline hides its own secrets.
In truth, the “sand” of the Salton Sea is mainly comprised of crushed fish skeletons . . .
. . . as well as dead fish. It is an absolutely eerie place to visit.
Thanks to its apocalyptic landscape, the Salton Sea has been immortalized onscreen numerous times over the years. The flooded out house where Jim Henry (Richard Conte) lived in 1954’s Highway Dragnet was said to be located at the Salton Sea and I am fairly certain that filming actually took place there, as well. Because the area has changed so drastically over the ensuing sixty years, I was unable to confirm that, though.
I do know for certain – thanks to this 2006 Los Angeles Times article – that the interior of Jim’s house was a set and not the interior of an actual Salton Sea residence.
In 1957, the sea was where prehistoric mollusk mutations were discovered in The Monster That Challenged the World. The narration that opens the film states, “This is the Salton Sea in Southern California – a strange phenomenon in which nature has placed four hundred square miles of salt water in the middle of an arid desert.” Aside from the aerial view of the area shown during that narration, I do not believe any other filming took place there.
The region was also used for flashback scenes in which Tom Van Allen (Val Kilmer) thinks back to a time when his wife, Liz (Chandra West), was still alive in 2002’s aptly-named The Salton Sea.
In the book Hollywood Escapes, the film’s director D.J. Caruso is quoted as saying, “I had flown over The Salton Sea many times and always wondered What the hell is that down there, and why is it called a sea? After reading the first draft of Tony Gayton’s screenplay The Salton Sea, I hopped into my car and made an impromptu trip out there. Upon arriving, I was overcome by the vastness of this body of water. It was indeed visually striking and I was moved by its haunted beauty. The images at the Salton Sea alone could have made a two-hour picture. I knew this place was the perfect companion to the soul of Val Kilmer’s character. What once was beautiful and full of hope, now was lost and searching for a way to survive.”
The North Shore Beach and Yacht Club masqueraded as the Aces & Spades dance club in the 2005 thriller The Island.
I am fairly certain that only the exterior of the Yacht Club was used in the filming and that the interior of the Ace & Spades was a set built elsewhere.
The North Shore Motel also appeared briefly in the movie.
Rock band Linkin Park shot the cover images for their 2007 album, Minutes to Midnight, at the Salton Sea.
For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Salton Sea is located off Highway 111, about 50 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The North Shore Beach and Yacht Club can be found at 99155 Sea View Drive in Mecca.
The Wrong-Door Raid Apartments
One of the most infamous (and humorous) scandals to ever rock Tinseltown involved my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe and her second ex-husband, legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio. (Their relationship wasn’t always sunshine and roses.) Known as the Wrong-Door Raid, it occurred in the late night hours of November 5th, 1954, but did not become public knowledge until almost a year later. I stalked the apartment building where the raid took place – at 8122 Waring Avenue in West Hollywood – last summer, initially planning to blog about it as a Haunted Hollywood locale. As I got to researching the events of that evening, though, I realized they were far more comical than scary and decided to postpone the post until now.
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After a scant 274 days of marriage, Joe and Marilyn divorced on October 27th, 1954. Convinced the starlet was finding solace in another man’s arms (namely her voice coach, Hal Schaefer), DiMaggio hired private detective Barney Ruditsky to tail her. On the night of November 5th, Ruditsky gave DiMaggio some news – Marilyn had just arrived at an apartment building on Waring Avenue in West Hollywood, quite possibly to meet up with a paramour. Joltin’ Joe was dining at the Villa Capri with close friend Frank Sinatra at the time and, hoping to catch Marilyn in the act, the two men rushed out of the restaurant and headed over to West Hollywood. (What they planned to do when they “caught” her is unclear.) On the sidewalk outside of the building, they met up with Ruditsky and a second private eye named Philip Irwin. Some other cohorts were also apparently on the scene, but reports vary as to who. Camera (as well as, supposedly, an ax) in hand, the men broke down the back door of one of the building’s ground floor units shortly after 11 p.m. and stormed inside. They did not find Marilyn, though. Instead, they surprised a spinster named Florence Kotz, who had been asleep in her bed. The group had somehow mistakenly entered the wrong apartment. Marilyn was in an upstairs unit with her friend Sheila Stewart (and quite possibly Schaefer as well, although that has not been proven) during the incident.
Florence immediately called the police, but the perpetrators had already run off, disappearing into the night. Not much was made of the events and the poor woman was left wondering why a group of strange men had broken down her door and taken a photograph of her in bed. Then in September 1955, Confidential magazine published an article telling the true story behind the raid. The sh*t quickly hit the proverbial fan. Frank was eventually served a subpoena on February 16th, 1957 at his Palm Springs home via two detectives who, in a karmic twist, knocked on his front door at 4 a.m., waking him up. Ironically, he filed a complaint. He later testified that he was a participant in the Wrong-Door Raid, but had never entered Florence’s apartment, choosing instead to stay behind in the car. His version of events was largely disputed, though. No one was ever prosecuted for the crime, but Florence did sue the group for $200,000, eventually settling for $7,500.
All I can think when reading about the events of the Wrong-Door Raid night is, ‘What a bunch of morons!’ Love makes people do crazy, ridiculous things, I guess. As Amanda Peet said in fave movie A Lot Like Love, “If you’re not willing to sound [or act, in this case] stupid, you don’t deserve to be in love.”
Years later, Schaefer came forward and “confessed” that he had been with Marilyn in Sheila’s apartment that night. I tend not to believe him, though. While he might well have been in Sheila’s home, I highly doubt it was because Monroe had any romantic interest in him. The guy seems like a total creeper – especially in the video below when describing the events that took place in the hospital with Marilyn following his suicide attempt.
There are several differing reports as to which unit DiMaggio and Sinatra actually broke into and which unit Marilyn was actually in during the raid, but according to the book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, written by fellow stalker E.J. of The Movieland Directory, Florence’s apartment was the one located at 754 North Kilkea Drive.
And Sheila’s apartment was the one at 8122 Waring Avenue.
For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Wrong-Door Raid apartments are located at 8120/8122 Waring Avenue/754 N. Kilkea Drive in West Hollywood.
Happy Presidents’ Day!
This weekend was a whirlwind that included a spectacular Valentine’s Day with the Grim Cheaper, a (VERY crowded, but fun) trip to Disneyland with Miss Pinky Lovejoy of the Thinking Pink blog and her husband, Keith Coogan, and seeing Air Force One in person (can’t get more presidential than that!). I, unfortunately, did not have any time to write a post for today or tomorrow, but I will be back on Wednesday with a whole new location. I hope all of my fellow stalkers are enjoying a fabulous three-day weekend – and for those who are in the Palm Springs area, I HIGHLY recommend venturing out to the airport to catch a glimpse of Air Force One before it leaves this afternoon.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Parisian Florist – The Flower Shop Joe DiMaggio Used to Send Roses to Marilyn Monroe’s Gravesite for 20 Years
As a child, I remember often hearing about the weekly delivery of roses that Joe DiMaggio sent to the grave of his former wife, Miss Marilyn Monroe, for two full decades. This was long before my obsession with the blonde bombshell had taken hold, but the gesture stuck with me as an extraordinary act of love, the ultimate valentine, if you will – especially considering that The Yankee Clipper was married to the starlet for less than a year. So when I recently came across the address of the florist that supplied those roses in the book Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here, I figured there was no better time to blog about the place than today, and ran right out to stalk it.
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Parisian Florist has been standing at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and North Sierra Bonita Avenue since it first opened in 1924 (yep, ninety years ago!). Brothers Louis and Max Alhanati purchased the business in 1960, becoming its third owners. It is still run by the Alhanati family to this day. Thanks to its location and plethora of luscious blooms, the shop became popular with the Hollywood set from the outset. Just a few of the luminaries who regularly ordered from Parisian Florist include Jackie Gleason, Clifton Webb, Raymond Burr, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Robert Mitchum, Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Janet Gaynor, Rock Hudson, Charles Laughton, and Telly Savalas. The site was also a favorite of Marilyn’s. So, on August 7th, 1962, Joe contacted Parisian Florist and asked Louis to design a casket blanket for the starlet’s funeral. He also ordered several floral wreaths, hearts, and crosses to be placed at her crypt. Louis’ designs were the only arrangements Joe allowed at the ceremony.
Shortly following the funeral, Joe again contacted Louis and asked that six roses be delivered to Marilyn’s final resting place thrice weekly. His original order stated, “Six fresh long-stemmed red roses, three times a week . . . forever.” For the next twenty years, a half dozen French Baccara blooms were placed each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Marilyn’s crypt at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, for which Joe was billed annually. (Amazingly, Louis never once raised the price on him.) According to this Ellensburg Daily Record article, for unknown reasons DiMaggio requested that the deliveries be reduced to twice weekly in early 1962 (every Tuesday and Saturday). Shortly thereafter, he cancelled the order altogether. Per this Lakeland Ledger article, the last six flowers were sent to Marilyn’s grave on August 31st, 1982. Of the halt, Louis said, “I really don’t know why it was 20 years. He gave me no reason.” More than 18,000 roses were delivered in all over the twenty-year period. As I said, it was the ultimate valentine.
Blonde that I am, when I walked into Parisian Florist I asked the woman working if I was indeed at the shop that had supplied Marilyn’s gravesite roses. She smiled and pointed upwards. While I typically consider myself to be an observant person, I must have been wearing a bag over my head that particular day because I somehow missed the huge display above the main desk commemorating DiMaggio’s weekly deliveries.
The people at Parisian Florist could NOT have been nicer and the woman I spoke with (whom I believe is Alhanati’s daughter) even brought out a baseball that Joe had signed for Louis. I literally just about passed out upon seeing it! The autograph reads, “To Louis, the Flower Man. Best Wishes, Joe DiMaggio.”
Parisian Florist had the most gorgeous hydrangeas on display when I was there (I am a sucker for hydrangeas and peonies). Sadly, because I was going to be out and about for several hours that day, I was not able to purchase any. If we still lived in the L.A. area, though, I sure know where my Valentine’s Day flowers would be coming from. 
For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Parisian Florist, where Joe DiMaggio ordered weekly flowers for Marilyn Monroe’s gravesite for twenty years, is located at 7528 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the florist’s official website here.
My Latest “L.A.” Magazine Post
I was in L.A. all day yesterday taking care of some things and did not have time to write a new post for today, but you can check out my latest column for L.A. magazine – about Reed’s flower shop from Valentine’s Day – here.
My Latest Interview
This week is going to be rather hectic for me – I am traveling to L.A. for a brief visit, buying a new car and my dad is having surgery – so I most likely will not be able to do any blogging. I will be back next Monday, though, with a whole new location. In the meantime, you can check out this fun interview I did with Pop Speaking last week.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Marilyn Monroe’s Childhood Home
One location that had been on my To-Stalk list for what seemed like ages was the Hawthorne-area home where my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe spent the first eight-and-a-half years of her life. Fellow stalker Lavonna had texted me the address years ago, but because I so rarely find myself in that neck of the woods, I was never able to make it out there. Until a couple of weeks ago, that is, when I realized that the residence was not too far from a hotel near LAX where the Grim Cheaper and I happened to be staying. So I dragged him right on over to stalk it (and to a Four Christmases locale that I will be writing about in late December).
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Gladys Mortensen was single, living in Hollywood and working as a film cutter at Consolidated Film Industries when she became pregnant with Marilyn in 1925. In December of that year, shortly before she was to give birth, she headed to Hawthorne in the hopes that she could move in with her mother, Della, for a brief time before and after the delivery. Della had other plans, though – she was about to sail to Borneo to make amends with her estranged husband, Charles Grainger, who was working in the oil fields there. Arrangements were instead made for Gladys to stay across the street at the home of Wayne and Ida Bolender, a deeply religious couple who served as foster parents to several children.
The Bolenders had moved into the 3-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,376-square-foot clapboard residence pictured below in 1919. At the time, the home, which was built in 1913, boasted 4 four acres of land (it now sits on a 0.20-acre parcel), where the family raised chickens and goats and grew vegetables. The property’s original address was 459 East Rhode Island Street, but during the re-districting of the area in the ‘30s and ‘40s it was changed to 4201 West 134th Street. You can see a photograph of the house from the time that the Bolenders owned it here. It is absolutely REMARKABLE how little of it has changed over the past ninety-plus years! You can also check out a picture of a newborn Marilyn in front of the dwelling here, in which a “459” address placard is visible in the background. So incredibly cool!
Gladys gave birth on June 1st, 1926 in the charity ward of Los Angeles General Hospital. She named her new daughter Norma Jeane Mortensen. After twelve days, the two returned to the Bolender’s. Gladys spent about three weeks at the Hawthorne house with Marilyn before heading back to Hollywood and her job at Consolidated in July. She left her baby behind, paying Wayne and Ida $5 a week to care for her. Contrary to what has been reported, Gladys did not abandon Marilyn entirely, but came to visit her on a weekly basis, often spending the night.
When Gladys’ son from her first marriage, Jackie, from whom she was estranged, died at the age of 14 in August 1933, she became compelled to regain custody of Norma Jeane. She took on a second job and by October 1934, had saved enough money to purchase a six-thousand-dollar house (at 6812 Arbol Drive in Hollywood – sadly, it’s no longer standing). That same month, eight-year-old Marilyn left the Bolenders and moved in with her mother. She didn’t stay long, though. Gladys had a nervous breakdown in late December and was committed to an asylum, at which point Norma Jeane was sent to live with one of her mother’s good friends, Grace McKee. She didn’t stay there long, though, either. By 1935, Gladys could no longer afford to care for Marilyn and sent her to the Los Angeles Orphan’s Home (now Hollygrove Home for Children, which I blogged about here). The girl who would become the world’s most famous blonde spent the remaining years of her childhood being bounced around from foster parents to family members. Then, at the tender age of 16, she married her first husband, James Dougherty, and moved into a guest house in Sherman Oaks, which also, unfortunately, no longer stands. You can read my blog post on that location here.
For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for telling me about this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s childhood home is located at 4201 West 134th Street in Hawthorne.
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 Kaushal Niroula, 26-year-old bartender Miguel Bustamante, 69-year-old attorney David Replogle, and 30-year-old former Marine Craig McCarthy), sounded absolutely intriguing and I ordered it immediately. Sadly, it turned out to be a bit of a disappointing and rather difficult-to-follow read. The story did fascinate – and sicken – me, though, and as soon as I finished reading it, I ran right out to stalk Lambert’s former house. And while I do realize that this article would fit in best with my Haunted Hollywood postings, I wanted to write it while the details were still fresh in my mind. So here goes.
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The convoluted story of Lambert’s disappearance began in April 2008 when the former art dealer, who had just recently broken up with his much-younger partner of 14 years, met Daniel Garcia online. The two began a digital flirtation and it was not long before Cliff flew his new friend out to Palm Springs for the weekend. While there, Daniel pilfered some of Lambert’s credit cards and bank statements and, in a rather brazen maneuver, used one of those credit cards to upgrade his seat to First Class on his flight home to San Francisco. Cliff caught wind of it immediately and severed all ties to the con man. Or so he thought. A couple of weeks later, Garcia showed up on Lambert’s doorstep, flowers in hand, to apologize. The atonement was a ruse, though, because during the visit, Daniel stole several of Cliff’s paintings, jewelry, and silver pieces.
A few months later, Garcia, his good friend Kaushal Niroula, who was a seasoned con artist, and Niroula’s boyfriend, David Replogle, began making plans to kidnap Cliff, whereupon they would force him to sign over his estate. (Lambert’s flashy lifestyle and expensive toys had led Daniel to believe he was a multi-millionaire. He wasn’t. While well off, Cliff did not have anything close to the amount of money that Garcia suspected.) In early December 2008, Niroula, posing as a New York estate lawyer named Samuel Orin, called Lambert and told him that he was poised to receive a large inheritance. The two made arrangements to discuss the matter in person and Niroula headed out to the desert. He was accompanied by his good friend Miguel Bustamante and Bustamante’s roommate, Craig McCarthy, both of whom were being paid to execute the kidnapping. At some point during their stay, and for reasons not made entirely clear in the book, plans changed, though, and Kaushal decided that Lambert would have to be killed.
On December 4th, Kaushal and Cliff met for the first time at Dink’s Restaurant to “discuss the inheritance.” While the two were dining, McCarthy and Bustamante snuck into Lambert’s garage and hid. For whatever reason, though, when Cliff arrived home, they chickened out and fled. The following night, Kaushal and Lambert met once again, this time at Lambert’s house to “finalize paperwork.” At one point, Niroula excused himself and went to let Miguel and Craig into the home through a side door. The two then killed Cliff by stabbing him to death with kitchen knives while Kaushal watched. After cleaning up the mess, they put him into the back of his own Mercedes and drove to a remote area where they buried him in a shallow grave. His body has never been found.
Shortly thereafter, Replogle forged documents that gave one of Niroula’s acquaintances, a 67-year-old Palm Springs art dealer named Russell Manning, power of attorney over Clifford’s estate. (It is likely that Manning did not know about the murder. Replogle had told him that Lambert was in jail for raping Niroula and infecting him with HIV and was signing over his estate as reparation.) Once the group had their hands on Lambert’s bank accounts, they began to blow through his money. In less than a month, Niroula and Garcia spent over $215,000. They also attempted to put his house on the market. Thankfully, the real estate agent they contacted about the sale had an instinct that something was fishy and did some online digging. When he learned that Lambert had been reported missing, he called the police. Around that same time, Bustamante showed up at Cliff’s house with a moving van and five day laborers and began to clear the place out. One of the neighbors saw the group, immediately contacted the authorities and Bustamante was arrested. While in custody, he folded and confessed the whole sordid tale. Warrants were soon issued for his five accomplices and all were arrested shortly thereafter.
While McCarthy pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison and Manning pled guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 5 years, Replogle, Garcia, Bustamante, and Niroula all stood trial. They were each eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Lambert’s former 4,301-square-foot house, which was originally built in 1954, was put on the market as a probate sale in May 2011 for $879,000. From what I can glean from property records, it sold fairly quickly for $737,000. It was then put on the market again the following year and sold in June 2012 for $1,030,000. According to the 2011 real estate listing, the Mid-century abode boasts four bedrooms, five baths, a 0.34-acre corner plot of land, a pool, a formal dining room, a large living room with an architectural fireplace and wood-beamed peaked ceilings, an office, a wet bar/ice cream bar, a guest wing, a large master bedroom with a double-sided fireplace, and, as you can see below, soaring views of the San Jacinto Mountains. You can check out some current interior photographs of the residence here, as well as some pictures from the time that Cliff owned it here.
According to a sign posted on the dwelling, the place is named Villa dei Leoni (which is the Italian translation of “House of Lions”). I am unsure if Lambert gave the pad its nickname or if it was done by a previous or subsequent owner.
I am also unsure if the gold L’s posted on the home’s front and side gate stand for Lambert or Leoni.
While I typically love true crime stories, this one was so completely twisted and perverse that it was almost repulsing. Reading about such morally-devoid people was quite tough for me to stomach. For those who are interested in additional information on the case (and it’s not pretty, let me tell you), you can check out a more in-depth write-up here and you can watch Part I of a KMIR 6 news special by clicking below.
Part II of that same special is below.
For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Clifford Lambert’s former house is located at 317 Camino Norte in the Old Las Palmas area of Palm Springs. Liberace’s third desert residence, which I blogged about here, is located just around the corner at 1441 North Kaweah Road.