famous murders – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 23, 2019October 22, 2019

Susan Berman’s Former House

One location that has confused me for years is the cottage where writer Susan Berman was murdered in 2000 – so much so that despite stalking it back in August 2015, I have put off blogging about it until now. I first learned of the locale from the hit HBO docuseries The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which chronicles the sordid, twisted, extremely weird tale of multimillionaire Durst and the deaths of three people connected to him, including Berman, his longtime BFF. On the show, much was made about Susan living at 1527 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills. When I headed out to stalk the home located there, though, I was shocked to see that it looked nothing like the pad showcased onscreen. Figuring I might have jotted down the wrong address (hey, it happens to the best of us!), I took photos regardless and started delving into the matter further as soon as I got home. Sure enough, what was shown in The Jinx, specifically the third episode titled “The Gangster’s Daughter,” did not match the house at 1527 Benedict Canyon. I eventually pushed the matter to the back of my mind where it remained until a couple of days ago when I decided to rehash it. Thankfully, this time around I was able to figure things out.

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In The Jinx, we are only shown one full shot of Susan’s former residence. It’s below.

Several close-up images taken the night of the murder are also featured on the series, though the dark-shingled façade pictured in them looks considerably different than the white-washed exterior from the wide shot. Since both consist of wood shake, though, I figured they were one and the same and that Susan likely had the place painted at some point during her tenure. But, as it turns out, the photos are actually of two different properties. The cottage above is a Brentwood residence Susan owned for a time long before she was murdered, while the pad below is her Benedict Canyon rental, where she lived during two different periods of her life, including her final years. Because the latter was remodeled extensively in 2006 and the wood siding removed, it is not very recognizable today, which only added to my confusion.

It was not until coming across the photos here and here that I was able to piece things together. As you can see, though the shiplap has been removed, making the home appear more ranch-like than its former Cape Cod style, it is the same place.

Hedges now obscure much of the dwelling from view, but toggling back to January 2011 on Google Street View provides better imagery. Per the building permits I dug up, besides the wood shake removal, during the 2006 remodel a portion of the patio was also enclosed in order to expand the kitchen and both bathrooms were gutted.

It was in the quaint abode that Berman met her untimely end on December 22nd, 2001 – authorities say at the hand of her dearest friend, Robert Durst. Susan and “Bobby,” as she called him, originally met while attending UCLA in the 1960s and became fast, yet unlikely companions – she a vibrant, talkative extrovert, he an odd reclusive scion of a prominent New York family. They say a picture speaks a thousand words and the image of Susan and Bob below speaks volumes regarding their strikingly different personalities. Regardless, the two were thick as thieves up until Susan’s death. But to understand her killing, we have to go back to 1982, when Robert’s first wife, Kathleen McCormack, went missing. As I explained earlier, it’s a very twisted tale.

Kathleen and Bob’s relationship was by all accounts tumultuous. Married in 1973, Kathie was seeking a divorce by early 1982. On January 31st of that year, after spending the weekend together at their South Salem lakeside cottage, Durst claims he dropped his wife off at the Katonah rail stop, where she caught a train to New York. A doorman reportedly saw her enter the couple’s pied-à-terre at 37 Riverside Drive later that night. The following morning, Kathie called the associate dean of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she was set to begin a clerkship, to say she was ill and would not be coming in. She has not been seen or heard from since. Because Kathie disappeared from Manhattan and Robert never left South Salem that night, he was never regarded as a suspect. At least not officially, though most who followed the case had their suspicions. The investigation quickly went cold and it was not until years later, November 1999 to be exact, that authorities decided to reopen it based upon a tip from a suspect in a different matter. Though said tip turned out to be bogus, it set off a chain of events almost too bizarre to be believed.

Detectives were able to keep the reopening of the case under wraps for a full year before the media caught wind of things. When reports finally started rolling out in November 2000, it sent Robert into a tailspin. He promptly relocated to Galveston, Texas where he rented a small apartment and began posing as an elderly mute woman to avoid detection. Just a couple of weeks later, on December 24th, Susan was found dead at her Benedict Canyon rental. According to a March 2001 New York magazine article, Berman had initially leased the 1935 cottage for a few years upon relocating from NYC to L.A. in 1981. Though small, with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, at the time it was a “lovely, cheerful place.” As you can see below, the 2006 remodel did the exterior of the place no favors. It looked so much better with the wood siding!

After marrying her one and only husband in 1984, Susan moved out of the Benedict Canyon property and into a home she purchased at 12030 Coyne Street in Brentwood. It was that house that was showcased on The Jinx.

An interview was even conducted outside of the Brentwood pad for the series and, in a very confusing twist, it was made to appear as if it was the Benedict Canyon residence! It’s no wonder I was confounded by the location for so long!

Berman’s marriage didn’t last and by 1987, she had a new love, aspiring screenwriter Paul Kaufman. The two eventually attempted to develop a Broadway musical together, using Susan’s finances to do so, but the venture bankrupted her, put an end to the relationship, and the Brentwood house was foreclosed on. Broke and single, she relocated to a condo at 1131 Alta Loma Road in West Hollywood, which was owned by a friend who let her live there rent-free for the next five years. In 1997, as she started to get back on her feet, she moved back into her old Benedict Canyon rental. But by late 2000, she found herself in dire financial straights yet again and reached out to Durst to borrow money. He sent her two checks totaling $50,000. He claims that around the same time she told him that she had been contacted by detectives regarding the re-opening of Kathie’s case and that she planned on speaking with them. It turns out that was not true – something Robert did not find out until much, much later. As recounted in a fabulous Los Angeles magazine article about Berman, Durst was shocked when L.A. Deputy District Attorney John Lewin informed him during a 2015 jailhouse interview, “They had not contacted her. I think that Susan was trying to subtly squeeze you for money.”

By all accounts, Susan never would have squealed on Bobby, though he had good reason to be nervous. Berman, who had casually mentioned to several friends over the years that Durst had something to do with Kathie’s disappearance, had not only provided an alibi for him the night McCormack went missing, but she also acted as his media liaison in the months that followed. And much of what she spewed wasn’t true. As it turns out, no doorman ever saw Kathie the night of January 31st – that was a story fed to the press by Berman. It is also now largely believed that it was Susan, posing as Kathie, who called the Albert Einstein College of Medicine dean the morning after the disappearance. Susan knew where the bodies were buried (quite possibly literally) and police contend that Robert killed her for it.

Authorities believe that Robert flew from New York to San Francisco on December 19th, 2000. He then took another flight to Eureka and, the following morning, drove to Los Angeles. He headed to Susan’s house late on the evening of the 22nd or early the morning of the 23rd and shot her once in the back of the head, execution-style. Police, responding to a call from a neighbor who reported that Berman’s dogs were running loose and barking up a storm, arrived at her residence at 1 p.m. on Christmas Eve where they found the the rear door open and Susan dead on the floor of the guest bedroom. She was 55 years old. A horrific scenario all around, no doubt, but Kathie’s sister Mary Hughes did have this to say in the Los Angeles magazine article about Susan, “Obviously it’s horrible that Berman was murdered by Durst. But we’ll always be mindful that she was Durst’s coconspirator in covering up Durst’s murder of our sister.”

1527 Benedict Canyon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

As evidenced in the crime scene photos from The Jinx (the top one I blacked out a portion of as Susan’s body was visible) as compared to the MLS images above and below, the house looks quite different today than it did in 2000. The interior was said to be in shambles toward the end of Susan’s life and the pictures featured on the series certainly attest to that. Apparently, the heat had even been turned off and some of the rooms lacked flooring – there was only cement where the carpeting had once been. The place is in much better shape since the 2006 remodel, during which doors were closed off and relocated and the kitchen opened up, as you can see.

1527 Benedict Canyon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

The bizarre story doesn’t end there. On the 23rd of December, a note was sent to the Beverly Hills Police Department that read “1527 Benedict Canyon Cadaver.” Susan’s body had already been found by the time detectives received it, but it did provide them with a clue. Whoever killed Berman must have cared for her in some way and didn’t want her body to go undiscovered.

The murders don’t end there, either. On September 28th, 2001, Durst shot his Galveston neighbor, a cantankerous elderly gentleman named Morris Black, who had discovered his true identity and had been pressuring him financially. Robert then dismembered his body, wrapped the parts in newspaper, put them in garbage bags and dumped them in Galveston Bay. The bags wound up floating though and were discovered by a teen fishing in the area the following day. An address on one of the newspapers led police straight to Durst and he was arrested. He promptly posted bail and then skipped town, successfully avoiding authorities until he was detained in Pennsylvania about six weeks later for attempting to steal a sandwich and a band-aid from a grocery store. You can’t make this stuff up! Robert claimed self-defense at his subsequent trial for Black’s murder and was inexplicably acquitted despite having dismembered the body, though he did serve some time for bond jumping and evidence tampering. He was eventually paroled in 2005, was rearrested for violating said parole, and served another few months.

In 2010, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki’s movie All Good Things, based on Durst’s life, premiered. Apparently happy with his onscreen portrayal, Robert contacted Jarecki and, against the advice of his lawyers and pretty much anyone else with half a brain, asked to be interviewed by him. Over the next few years, Jarecki compiled more than twenty hours of footage of Durst, which is how The Jinx came to be. The series debuted to much fanfare on February 8th, 2015. Building on evidence uncovered by Jarecki and his producing partner, Marc Smerling, police began closing in on Durst, ultimately deciding to arrest him on March 14th, 2015, the day before the final episode hit HBO. That finale featured a chilling segment in which Robert was confronted with a letter he wrote to Susan in 1993, years prior to her death, which bore not only the exact same block handwriting as the “cadaver” note, but the exact same misspelling of the word “Beverly.” In a stunning turn, he then walked into the bathroom of the hotel room where the interview was taking place, still miked, and uttered to himself, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” His trial for Susan’s murder is set to begin in January and something tells me this time an acquittal is not in the cards.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Susan Berman’s former house is located at 1527 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 3, 2018October 16, 2019

The Salomon Family’s Former Home

The second I pulled the July issue of Los Angeles magazine out of my mailbox, I knew I was a goner. Not only did the publication chronicle the city’s best fried chicken (my favorite food), but six words on the cover stopped me dead in my tracks – “Searching for the Family that Vanished.” Resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be getting any work done until I devoured the article, I immediately headed over to page 64. For the next hour or so, I remained absolutely transfixed by journalist Stacy Perman’s fascinating story about her childhood best friend/neighbor, Michelle Hoffman, who disappeared without a trace along with the rest of her family – mom Elaine Salomon, step-dad Sol Salomon and half-brother Mitchell Salomon – from their Northridge home on October 12th, 1982. They have never been found, nor has their case ever been solved.

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Piquing my interest even further was the photograph pictured below, a current image of the Salomons’ former home (taken by Michelle Thomas) that ran with the article. As soon as my eyes caught sight of the place, I knew I had to locate it. And yes, I get that some (or most) might find that weird. For whatever reason, though, it is just the way my brain is wired. I come across a mention of a site where something significant happened – good or bad – and it’s like an itch – I have to research it, pinpoint it, and ultimately see it in person.

The hunt for the Salomon residence wasn’t a tough one. In Los Angeles magazine, Perman notes that the pad is on Lassen Street. Further digging led me to a February 4th, 1983 Los Angeles Times article (a portion of which is pictured below) that mentioned the family lived across the street from John Nobel Junior High School. So I opened up Google Maps and headed right on over to the stretch of Lassen situated across from Nobel (which is known as “Alfred B. Nobel Charter Middle School” in actuality). Despite the fact that quite a few properties on the block have a very similar look to the pad pictured in LA mag, I found the right spot fairly quickly at 19232 West Lassen. I headed out to see it shortly thereafter.

The former Salomon home is a strikingly normal dwelling on a remarkably normal street – not the sort of spot you’d expect a murder to take place, let alone a mass murder of an entire family. But that is largely believed to be what happened on the night the Salomons vanished in October 1982. Elaine, a stay-at-home mom, and Sol, an Israeli-born fire extinguisher salesman, moved to the sprawling 4-bedroom, 3-bath, 2,835-square-foot ranch-style abode in the late 1970s, a few years after getting married. Stacy, who lived a few houses down, became fast friends with their teenage daughter, Michelle. She was even set to sleepover the night of the disappearance, but, as she says, “For some reason, I had begged off.”

As she details in her fabulous article, the evening started out ordinarily enough. After the family dined with Elaine’s parents, Murray and Margaret Malarowitz, Sol headed to a car auction with Harvey Rader, a semi-business partner of his who owned a nearby auto repair shop, while Elaine, Margaret and 15-year-old Michelle ventured out to a clothing party (which was similar to a Tupperware party) at a friend’s house. Murray stayed home to take care of 9-year-old Mitchell. The women returned to the Salomon pad around 10:30 p.m. and Elaine’s parents left. Sol had not yet arrived home, which did not appear to be cause for concern to anyone. Later that night, Elaine chatted on the phone with a friend named Barbara Levy, who told police that at around 11:30 there was a knock at the door. Elaine answered and informed Barbara that Rader was there and that she had to hang up, but would call back the following day. That call never came and no one has spoken with her, or any other member of the family, since.

The next night, the people who lived behind Sol and Elaine discovered that their yard was flooding and that the water was coming from the Salomons’ pool, which was overflowing. The neighbor called Stacy and her mother to check on things. When the two arrived at 19232 Lassen, they found the family’s cars parked in the driveway, but no one inside. Stacy’s mother called around to a few friends and family members, but no one had seen or heard from any of the Salomons. She then contacted the police, who entered the property and uncovered quite a cause for concern in Michelle’s bedroom. Not only was the teen’s bed broken, but her pillowcases, sheets and comforter were missing and bloodstains were sprayed across her mattress and wall. Oddest of all, some of her bedroom carpet had been cut out and removed. Other than that and the waterlogged backyard, though, nothing else appeared to be amiss. A little over a week later, two wallets belonging to the family, as well as a couple of other personal items, were found along the side of the Antelope Valley Freeway. Though police questioned Rader, the last person to see the Salomons alive, he feigned innocence, stating that he had dropped Sol off at an Israeli restaurant after the car show (though it was later learned the restaurant was closed that particular evening) and had only popped by the family’s home to pick up a car that he had agreed to repair. Rader instead pointed the finger at the Israeli mob, claiming that Sol was a black market arms dealer (yeah, cause that’s really believable).

Police soon learned that Rader had ties to three other missing persons – Peter and Joan Davis who disappeared from their Granada Hills home on March 17th, 1982, just seven months before the Salomons vanished, and Burbank resident Ron Adeeb who was last seen in January of that same year. Rader’s cousin, Ashley Paulle, later implicated him as the murderer of both the Davises and the Salomons. The killing of Peter and Joan, according to Paulle, took place during a robbery and the murder of the Salomon family was the result of an argument stemming from $20,000 that Rader owed Sol. The path to charging the man was a long one, though, thanks largely to Paulle’s ultimate refusal to testify. Though originally arrested in 1983, Rader was quickly released due to insufficient evidence. He was then re-arrested in 1987, this time for passport fraud, and sent to prison for two years. Shortly before he was set to be released, the DA finally filed charges against him for the Salomon murders and he headed to court. His first trial, which began in May 1989, ended in a hung jury – 11 to 1 for conviction. The second, which started on January 4th, 1990, lasted only a day before a mistrial was called. His third culminated in a not guilty verdict on July 8th, 1992. Sadly, justice for the Salomons has never been achieved.

The case is an incredibly sad one that echoes that of the McStays’ (a disappearance that has riveted me for almost ten years) in chilling fashion. While exactly what happened to the Salomons remains a mystery, their former house still stands – the exterior largely unchanged from the time they occupied it – like a beacon harkening back to a simpler time when people didn’t believe things like that could happen in a neighborhood like theirs. (The photo of the family pictured below comes from the same 1983 Los Angeles Times article I referenced earlier, which, unfortunately, is only available via a Newspapers.com subscription.)

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Salomon family’s former home is located at 19232 West Lassen Street in Northridge.

October 12, 2016September 29, 2017

Robert Pastorelli’s Former House

Growing up, I absolutely loved Murphy Brown. This was largely due to the antics of zany housepainter/nanny Eldin Bernecky, played by actor Robert Pastorelli. I adored Eldin so much in fact that when Pastorelli left the show in 1994, I stopped watching. I was heartbroken to learn of his death a decade later and was even more heartbroken when news came to light that he was being investigated as a suspect in the 1999 killing of his then girlfriend, Charemon Jonovich, at the time. Not surprisingly, the case fascinated me, so when I came across a Curbed LA article back in 2009 about the Hollywood Hills house where both deaths occurred, I immediately added the address to my To-Stalk List. And while I made it over there shortly thereafter, somehow in all of this time I never managed to blog about it. I had actually forgotten about the place until a couple of weeks ago when I sat down to look through all of my old stalking photographs in order to compile a database of yet-to-be-blogged Haunted Hollywood locales. As soon as I spotted the images, this one was moved right to the top of the list!

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The story of Robert Pastorelli’s life is a sad one. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1954, Robert set out on a path to become a professional boxer. A near-fatal car accident at the age of 19 derailed those plans and he began battling a drug problem shortly thereafter. During his twenties, Pastorelli moved to New York and became involved with the theatre scene. He eventually relocated to L.A., where he found success with small movie and television roles before finally hitting the big time when he landed the part of Eldin in 1988. He got clean around that same time, but just two years later tragedy struck when his then girlfriend died of AIDS, apparently the result of repeated drug use.

When Murphy Brown creator Diane English left the show in 1994, Pastorelli followed suit. Though he landed a starring role in another English sitcom, Double Rush, almost immediately, it was cancelled after only 12 episodes. Robert continued to work in Hollywood in the ensuing years, though not very successfully. Then in 1999 things really got bad. According to reports, at approximately 9:50 p.m. on March 15th of that year, Pastorelli’s 25-year-old live-in girlfriend Charemon shot herself in the head during an argument with the actor while in the master bedroom of their shared home. She died instantly. Their one-year-old daughter was asleep in another room. Pastorelli cooperated with authorities and the coroner ruled Charemon’s death “undetermined.” That ruling was later changed to “homicide,” though, according to Inside Edition which cited “staging of the crime scene and scientific evidence the firearm was handled after discharge” as the reasoning behind the adjustment. Pastorelli became the police’s number one suspect.

According to numerous articles, including this one from the Daily News, Pastorelli knew he was being investigated and that detectives were closing in and an arrest was likely imminent. He began using drugs again and on March 8th, 2004 the actor was found by an assistant, slumped over on his toilet with a syringe in his arm, dead from an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 49. It’s a sad story all around.

Pastorelli purchased his Hollywood Hills home in 1989 for $487,000. After his death, it was sold to a PR exec, who, in turn, put it on the market for $1.095 million in 2009. Per the listing from that year, the gated contemporary 1962 pad boasts 2 bedrooms, 1 ¾ baths, 1,726 square feet of living space, an open floor plan, a remodeled kitchen with stainless appliances, a fireplace, 360-degree views of the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory, and an “oversized party shower with direct access to the outdoor deck.” I’m not really sure what an “oversized party shower” is, but I’m guessing it’s not something I want. The residence wound up selling for $976,000 in May 2010. The photos below are from the 2009 MLS listing. You can check out some more images of the house here (and yes, the master bedroom, bathroom, and oversized party shower are pictured).

Though I have not been inside the house, I can attest to the fact that the views are stunning. The Hollywood Sign is literally right there!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Robert Pastorelli’s former house is located at 2751 Hollyridge Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Heidi and Spencer’s home from Season 5 of The Hills is located just up the street at 3132 Hollyridge Drive.

October 13, 2014September 29, 2017

The El Palacio Apartments

Situated at the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood is an idyllic complex named The El Palacio Apartments. The gorgeous Spanish Baroque architecture is hiding some dark secrets, though. The building has been the site of two infamous deaths, the most notorious of which was the overdoes of actress Dorothy Dandridge in 1965. I have always been fascinated by the El Palacio’s lesser-known tie to the macabre, however. It was at the tenement that a young oil heiress named Georgette Bauerdorf was found murdered, face down in a bathtub, in 1944 – a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

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The El Palacio Apartments were designed by architect William Hauptman in 1931. The 18-unit courtyard complex features a stuccoed exterior, subterranean parking, mahogany doors, cast stone ornamentation, balconets, a tiled gable roof and gardens fashioned by Seymour Thomas.

Georgette Bauerdorf was born into a life of privilege in New York City on May 6, 1924. After her mother passed away in 1935, she migrated to Los Angeles with her father and sister. Georgette graduated from the Westlake School for Girls in 1941 and spent the next few years travelling. In the summer of 1944, she moved into the family’s multi-level, two-story apartment at the El Palacio along with her sister and father. When they decided to return to Manhattan in August, Georgette remained behind. She spent her days working for the Los Angeles Times Women’s Service Bureau and also volunteered each Wednesday night as a junior hostess at the Hollywood Canteen, a nightclub for servicemen formerly located at 1451 Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood.

On the night of October 11th, 1944, Georgette left the Hollywood Canteen at 11:30 p.m. and arrived home about a half an hour later. She ate a can of string beans and some cantaloupe and then changed into pajamas. The following morning she was found by the cleaning staff, face down in her bathtub with a nine-inch by nine-inch piece of cloth lodged in her throat. It is said that the bath water had been left running, though I am not sure how or why the tub did not overflow. The police were immediately called and it was determined that Georgette had been raped and strangled. Nothing in the apartment was found to be amiss, save for a lone drop of blood on the floor of the bedroom, and Georgette’s expensive jewelry had been left undisturbed on her dresser. Investigators later discovered that her front porch light had been unscrewed slightly, rendering it unusable, possibly so that the intruder could leave the premises undetected.

A few suspects were later questioned, but the crime was never solved. It is believed, though, that a man, most likely someone Georgette knew, broke into her apartment while she was at the Hollywood Canteen and then proceeded to hide out until after she returned home, at which time he raped and killed her. You can read a more detailed account of the case here.

Twenty years later, Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American woman to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, moved into unit D2 of the El Palacio. Her tenure there was not long. She was in fairly dire straits at the time, victim to both a drug addiction and a Ponzi scheme that had depleted her finances. On September 8th, 1965, just a year after she had moved in, she was found dead of a prescription pill overdose in the bathroom of her apartment. She reportedly had $2.14 in her bank account. You can read more about her death here.

According to Curbed LA, my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe also lived at the El Palacio Apartments, in the spare bedroom of actor John Carroll and his wife, Lucille Ryman, for five months in 1947.

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! Smile

Stalk It: The El Palacio Apartments, where the murder of Georgette Bauerdorf took place, are located at 8491-8499 Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood.

December 5, 2013December 4, 2013

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! Smile

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.

October 29, 2013September 29, 2017

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 from my chin Winking smile , I added the site to my Haunted Hollywood To-Stalk list and finally managed to drag the Grim Cheaper out there a couple of weekends ago.

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The 3-bedroom, 3.25-bath, 3,608-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1961, has quite a distinguished Hollywood pedigree. Upon its completion, the dwelling was first inhabited by George Arnold, the longtime producer of Las Vegas’ popular Rhythm on Ice show. When he moved out in the mid-60s, the pad was purchased by The Merry Widow actress Gregg Sherwood, who continued to own the place until 1976, when she sold it to a race track executive named Ed Friendly and his wife, San Francisco socialite Sophia. The couple did not live there long. At around 7:30 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, October 12th, 1978, Sophia, who was then 71, and Ed, who was 74, were just preparing to eat a fish dinner that had been prepared by their housekeeper, 67-year-old Frances Williams, when the doorbell rang. The visitor was granted access to the home and proceeded to have a brief conversation with Sophia, during which he pulled out a .45-caliber handgun. Sophia tried to flee down a hallway, but was shot in the back of the head and died instantly. The killer then entered the kitchen and shot Frances, who had just placed the Friendlys’ dinner in a warming oven. Ed, who was hard of hearing and likely unaware of the carnage taking place just a few feet away, was shot last, in the bedroom where he was watching TV. Before leaving, the killer grabbed a fedora from the hallway and placed it over Sophia’s face. None of the neighbors saw or heard a thing.

At 7:30 the following morning, the pool man showed up at the property and spotted Frances’ corpse through the window. When police arrived later, they discovered the bodies of Ed and Sophia, as well as spent shell casings in the den, kitchen and hallway. The warming oven, with the Friendlys’ dinner inside, was still turned on. The house was in disarray, but nothing appeared to have been stolen. And while the case led investigators all over the globe, it was eventually dropped due to a shortage of funds, the death of two key witnesses, and a lack of evidence, and remains open and unsolved to this day. Police do have a theory, though, and, boy, is it tawdry!

Prior to meeting Ed, Sophia was married for 24 years to Curtis Wood Hutton, who just so happened to be the first cousin of Woolworth heir Barbara Hutton. Curtis and Sophia had two children, Edward and Sophia (yes, she apparently named her daughter after herself). At some point during the early years of the marriage, Barbara gifted Curtis, who was said to be one of her favorite relatives, a $1 million trust fund. When he joined the Navy during World War II, Sophia, nervous that her husband might be killed in the line of duty, leaving her penniless, had the trust amended so that it would be payable to her upon Curtis’ death. If she happened to precede her husband in death, the two Hutton children would inherit the money. The amendment turned out to be irrevocable, so even after Curtis and Sophia divorced in 1951, she still stood to inherit the $1 million if he passed away before her. Then, in 1977, the sh*t hit the proverbial fan. Not only did Sophia amend her will, disinheriting her son and daughter, but Curtis also became terminally ill. Edward, who was destitute at the time, realized he had to act fast if he ever wanted to see a dime of his father’s trust fund. Police speculate that he paid Andreas Christensen, a London-based friend of his who was no stranger to crime, to commit the murders. Things went according to plan, too, because Curtis died on October 28th, just two weeks after Ed and Sophia, and the Barbara Hutton trust, which then amounted to $1.3 million, was divided between Edward and his sister. As I said, tawdry stuff! You can read two fabulous, more in-depth articles about the murders on the DuJour magazine website and on the SFGate website.

Actor George Nader and his life partner, Mark Miller, purchased the property in 1991. They owned the place until George’s death in 2002. According to Palm Springs Confidential, at the time that they purchased it, the couple had no idea that a triple homicide had taken place on the premises. Miller said, “We were never told about the murders. We found out two years later.” Nice disclosure job from the real estate agent. Winking smile

Sadly, the residence was sold in August 2011 and the new owners have since completely remodeled the place. You can see what the home used to look like via Google Street View below and in these photographs from the 2011 real estate listing. I personally prefer the pre-remodel design. So Old Hollywood!

On a side-note – I would like to wish a big CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and her new husband, Keith Coogan. The two tied the knot this past Saturday in Malibu and a fabulously pink time was had by all. (Can you tell that I was just a little excited to be partnered up with none other than Jeremy Miller during the ceremony?? Smile ) You can read a great write-up on the festivities, which included the bride and groom driving off in a DeLorean, on the Mike the Fanboy website here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: George Nader’s former house, where Ed and Sophia Friendly were murdered in 1978, is located at 893 Camino Sur in Palm Springs’ Las Palmas Estates neighborhood.

October 9, 2013September 29, 2017

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 article, immediately headed to my computer to find out more information about the case, which is easily one of the most haunting and peculiar ever to touch the City of Angels. Then, when I came across the insanely eerie surveillance footage of Lam in the hotel’s elevator – the last images taken of the young woman alive – I knew I had to cover the place during my Haunted Hollywood postings and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it just a few days later.

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The Cecil Hotel was constructed sometime during the 1920s (there are varying reports online stating that it opened in 1924, 1925 and 1927 and I am unsure of which year is correct). The fifteen-floor property was originally billed as an upscale hotel for business travelers, but when the Great Depression hit just a few years after its founding, the Cecil’s business took a severe downturn. By the 1950s, the site had become a sanctum for transients and criminals and was eventually converted into a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) establishment, offering rooms with shared bathrooms to long-term residents at low rates.

In May 2007, the structure was purchased for $28.5 million by a development company who had plans to turn it back into a hotel. Renovations were started in which the lobby was restored to its original grandeur (the result was fabulous as you will see at the end of this post) and three floors of rooms converted into a modernized “boutique hotel/youth hostel hybrid.” Sadly though, the city stepped in and halted the project mid-way through, claiming that the property was a “residential hotel” and that the owners would have to find replacement housing for any displaced occupants. Lawsuits followed and the Cecil wound up being turned back over to the lender. It is unclear as to what is to become of the locale in the future, but at the present time the site offers both long-term and short-term accommodations, and a rather odd dichotomy.

Despite the partial renovation and grandness of the lobby, seediness still dogs the Cecil. A 2008 Los Angeles Times article states, “Fresh Monet, Picasso and Kandinsky posters hang on the vivid yellow, red and blue walls next to the elevators on each floor. But around the corner, reality hits: The rooms are small, bugs scamper across the floors and in the dim hallways, one sometimes encounters guests who have been using drugs or alcohol.” Steve Erickson actually spent the night at the hotel before penning his “Sleep Tight” article. (Um, no thank you!) Upon checking in, he snagged his neighbor’s DO NOT DISTURB sign to hang on his own door because, as he says, “When someone knocks on your door at the Cecil, it isn’t room service.” When he returned to his room after a dinner at Cole’s restaurant (which I blogged about here) a few hours later, the sign was gone – stolen by another wary hotel guest. Erickson describes the property as such, “If you aren’t at the Cecil to hide, or to look for the city you’ve occupied but never known, you’re probably a foreign traveler stranded by expectations, inconsolable for a glimpse of Hollywood or the beach that the travel guide promised is only ‘minutes away.’ The Cecil hasn’t been minutes away from anything worth being minutes away from for decades.” Yeah, I’d say that pretty much sums the place up.

The Cecil has had numerous brushes with darkness over its eighty-plus-year history. In 1985, Richard Ramirez, aka the Night Stalker, lived on the hotel’s top floor in a $14-a-night room. Austrian journalist/serial killer Jack Unterweger moved into the property in 1991 in what many believe was an homage to Ramirez. He killed three prostitutes during his tenure there. The structure has also been the site of at least three suicides and one unsolved murder. Its most bizarre incidence of the macabre, though, has to be the disappearance and death of Elisa Lam.

Lam, who was traveling alone, checked into the Cecil Hotel on January 27th, 2013 while on a California holiday. She spoke with her family back in Vancouver daily during the trip. Then, on January 31st, she vanished without a trace. Detectives investigating the case were at a loss until they asked to see the hotel’s surveillance videos, on which was footage of Elisa acting extremely strangely in the Cecil’s elevator the night of her disappearance. In the video, which you can watch by clicking below, the young woman, seemingly both petrified and playful, is shown haphazardly pushing buttons for every floor, hiding in a corner, jumping in and out of the elevator, speaking to someone real or imagined just out of the camera’s view, and inexplicably flailing her arms and hands about. The feed is honestly one of the most haunting things I’ve ever watched in my life!

Lam’s body was not found until almost three weeks later, when, on February 19th, a maintenance worker headed to the Cecil’s roof to check the water tanks after several guests complained of low water pressure in their rooms. He discovered Lam’s naked body at the bottom of one of the property’s four 8-foot tall, 4-foot wide tanks. (And yes, hotel guests had been bathing in, brushing their teeth with, and drinking the water from that tank while Lam’s body was decomposing. Talk about an absolute nightmare! The incident triggered some rather humorous Yelp reviews, though, including the admonition, “Worst. Swimming. Pool. Ever.”) Despite the eerie video and mystery surrounding her disappearance, the coroner’s report ruled Lam’s death an “accidental drowning” and listed her bi-polar disorder as a contributing factor. Um, what now? Detectives were unable to explain how the young woman entered the roof area, which can only be accessed with a key, although they speculated that she climbed there via a fire escape. But did she do so naked? If not, then where are her clothes? And how does one theorize a tiny woman scaling an 8-foot tall water tank, opening the lid, climbing inside, and then shutting the lid back over herself ALL ON HER OWN? Accidental drowning, my foot! While the case is now closed, I have a feeling that the mystery surrounding it will never quiet.

Besides being the site of real life horror, the Cecil hotel is also a filming location. In 1977, the structure was where a taxi cab driver named Lawson (James Sutorius) killed a prostitute (Juno Dawson) in the Season 5 episode of Kojak titled “A Strange Kind of Love.” As you can see below, the exterior of the hotel looked quite a bit different back then.

Although the “Cecil” sidewalk sign (which you can see a photograph of here) still looks the same.

The interior of the property seen in Kojak bears no resemblance whatsoever to the interior of the Cecil hotel today. As you will see in a minute, the new owners did one heck of a remodel!

Fellow stalker Walter also informed me that in 1978 the exterior of the Cecil appeared in the background of the Season 4 episode of The Rockford Files titled “Dwarf in a Helium Hat.” Thanks, Walter!

The property has also been used in no less than three episodes of the television series Castle. It first popped up in 2009 in the Season 2 episode titled “When the Bough Breaks” as the supposed fancy New York building where Dr. Cameron Talbot (Reed Diamond) lived. Only the interior of the lobby area was used in the filming. (Like I said, the renovation was really quite spectacular.)

That same year, a bike messenger was struck by a hit-and-run driver in front of the Cecil in the Season 2 episode of Castle titled “Kill the Messenger.”

In 2011, the site popped up once again in the Season 3 episode of Castle titled “Nikki Heat,” as the supposed New York-area Beaumont Hotel. And while IMDB also states that the property appeared in the Season 1 episode of Baretta titled “The Half-Million Dollar Baby,” I was unable to find a copy of the episode with which to verify that claim.

On a Halloween side-note – this past Saturday I attended the bachelorette party for Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, which took place at Disneyland, my favorite place in the entire world. I just about died upon arriving at the park’s gates and seeing the decorations pictured below. Halloween and Disneyland together was almost more excitement than this stalker could handle!

Check out the autumn leaves used as a bow in Minnie’s hair.

For those who have never been, Disneyland is an absolutely magical place during Halloween. Who am I kidding? Disneyland is an absolutely magical place any time of year, but it is especially so during Halloween.

Um, LOVE IT!

Add to that the fact that a Starbucks FINALLY opened inside the park – right on Main Street – and my head was about to explode! As my mom said, now Disneyland truly IS the Happiest Place on Earth. Winking smile

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Cecil Hotel is located at 640 South Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the property’s official website here.

October 3, 2013September 29, 2017

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 that the murders took place in 1989! I would have guessed them to have occurred far more recently.) The case that followed would become one of the most-famous and most-watched of the century, rivaled only by that of O.J. Simpson – which is ironic, but more on that later. I first became interested in the Elm Drive house earlier this year while reading the book You’ll Never Make Love in This Town Again, one of the chapters of which was written by actress Robin Greer whose husband, businessman Mark Slotkin, custom-built the property.

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The Mediterranean-style home was originally constructed in 1927, but was completely redesigned by Slotkin in 1974 and became his and Robin’s primary residence. Slotkin’s rebuild featured six bedrooms, eight baths, 9,063 square feet of living space, a pool, a tennis court, and a two-story guest house with its own sitting room, full bath, bedroom, and two-car garage. And here’s where the irony comes in. Greer and Slotkin were longtime friends of O.J. Simpson’s, and Robin reportedly hosted Nicole Brown Simpson’s baby shower, when she was pregnant with Sydney, at the Elm Drive manse in 1985. How’s that for eerie? Robin even states in You’ll Never Make Love in This Town Again that Nicole named Sydney after Robin’s character on Ryan’s Hope. In October 1988, after Mark and Robin decided to divorce, the estate was put on the market and sold to the Menendez family. They would live in it for less than a year. (Ironically enough, Robin was also at the center of a very interesting – and heartbreaking – Los Angeles Times story about an autograph collector’s unsuccessful quest that caught my eye this past July.)

On the evening of August 20th, 1989, Erik and Lyle murdered their parents with shotguns while the couple sat on the couch in their den watching The Spy Who Loved Me. Jose was shot five times, Kitty nine. The brothers, feigning grief, claimed that the killings had most likely been conducted by the mob. Their strange behavior was a red flag to investigators, though. Just three days after the murders, Lyle and Erik began blowing through their inheritance, going on extensive shopping sprees and ultimately spending over $1 million in six months time. Their purchases included a $64,000 Porsche, a Rolex watch, $40,000 worth of clothing, and, oddest of all, one of Lyle’s favorite restaurants in Princeton, Chuck’s Spring Street Café. Erik wound up confessing the crime to his therapist, L. Jerome Oziel, quite fittingly on Halloween day 1989. When Lyle found out, he became infuriated and threatened Oziel. The therapist taped some later conversations with the brothers and Oziel’s mistress informed police of the recordings in March 1990. The brothers were arrested that same month and charged with multiple murder for financial gain. The first trial, in 1994, resulted in hung juries, but they were both convicted and given life sentences during their retrial in 1996.

The Elm Drive house has been sold twice since the murders – first in 1993 to mystery television writer William Link and then in 2001 to a telecommunications executive named Sam Delug. Thinking about a normal family living their day-to-day life on the premises, I am reminded of the following quote by crime novelist Denise Hamilton from her article “Bringing Out the Dead” which was printed in the July 2013 issue of Los Angeles magazine: “And I wondered, Do bricks and mortar retain memories of crimes committed in airless rooms? Can violence sear a pattern into walls that no layers of paint can cover? Is this small patch of earth forever cursed?” Thankfully though, it looks like the macabre history of the house has not prevented Mr. Delug from celebrating Halloween, as you can see in this photograph on the Find a Death website.

Some sort of construction took place at the residence in 2002 (as you can also see on Find a Death) and the interior was reportedly gutted, but the exterior still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Jose and Kitty owned it. Oddly enough, though, a gate that used to surround the property was taken down during the remodel. With a dwelling as notorious as this one, you’d think the owners would have wanted to put a fence up, not take one down!

And while there are rumors that Elton John, Michael Jackson, Prince, and members of the band U2 all rented the mansion at different points in time, being that Mark Slotkin sold it directly to Jose and Kitty, I do not see how that could be possible – unless, of course, they were tenants prior to the home’s 1974 rebuild.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Menendez Brothers’ former house is located at 722 North Elm Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 17, 2011September 29, 2017

George Reeves’ Former Home

Another location that has long been woven into the fabric of Hollywood lore is George Reeves’ former Benedict Canyon bungalow, where in the early morning hours of June 16th, 1958 the Adventures of Superman star was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. The events surrounding his death have been the subject of much conjecture ever since. Did the 45-year-old actor commit suicide (as was the official finding), was his death accidental, or was he murdered by his vengeful ex-lover or her jealous husband? Conspiracy theories abound and Reeves’ death has remained the stuff of Hollywood legend for over five decades since. His passing even became the subject of the 2006 biographical docudrama Hollywoodland, in which Ben Affleck plays the Pasadena-bred television star. For whatever reason, though, in my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles, I had yet to stalk the former Superman’s home. So I figured this was the perfect time to do so and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there last weekend.

George Reeve’s former residence is rather small, especially by Hollywood standards. The brown-shingled bungalow, which was built in 1947, boasts 2 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 1,717 square feet. It was purchased for the actor at a cost of $12,000 by his longtime lover, MGM Vice-President E.J. Mannix’s wife Toni Lanier, whom the actor had broken up with shorty before his death. Reeves’ new girlfriend, who had since moved in, was a New York socialite named Leonore Lemmon, with whom he was rumored to be engaged. On the night of June 15th, 1959, Reeves and Lemmon went out to dinner and the two reportedly drank a great deal. When they returned home, they continued to kick back the alcohol until around 12:30 p.m., at which point Reeves retired to his bedroom. Lemmon stayed awake and about thirty minutes later three friends dropped by for a visit. Shortly after their arrival, Reeves came downstairs to hang out with the group and then once again retired to his room at around 1:20. A few minutes later a shot was heard and the foursome ran upstairs. The actor was discovered laying face up on his bed, naked, with a single gunshot wound to his right temple and a .30 caliber Luger on the floor in between his lifeless feet. Television’s beloved Superman was dead at the tender age of 45. Reeves was dressed in one of his character’s Clark Kent suits for the funeral, which took place two weeks later, on June 30th, 1959. His body was later cremated and interred at the Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, which I blogged about during my Haunted Hollywood theme last year.

Reeves’ death was quickly ruled a suicide, but some facts of the case appear to be murky at best. For instance, Lemmon and her friends pulled a Conrad Murray by failing to call the police until about thirty minutes after discovering the body, and each seemed to have a differing account of the evening due to their inebriated states. Reeves himself was also severely under the influence, with a blood alcohol level of .27 and, because the actor had long enjoyed playing with unloaded weapons, it was thought possible he accidentally shot himself while doing so. It was also widely believed that Toni, to whom Reeves bequeathed his entire estate, may have shot him in a jealous rage after hearing news of his engagement, or that her husband, E.J. Mannix, who had ties to the mob, had him “whacked” due to the affair. Whatever the case may be, no charges were ever filed and Reeves’ death remains one of the most talked about Hollywood scandals to this day.

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Amazingly, George Reeves shot part of a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercial (the cereal company was the sponsor of Adventures of Superman) inside of his actual Benedict Canyon home. The areas which appeared in the commercial include the den;

the master bedroom (where the actor died);

the kitchen;

and the backyard. According to Jim Nolt’s fabulous Superman-themed The Adventures Continue website, the house has remained largely unchanged since the time Reeves lived there over fifty years ago.

George Reeves’ Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Commercial–Filmed in his Home

You can watch George Reeves’ Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercial by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: George Reeves’ former home is located at 1579 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 14, 2011September 29, 2017

Lana Turner’s Former House -The Johnny Stompanato Murder Site

My grandma, who loves reading Hollywood biographies just as much as I do, recently gifted me with a book about the life of legendary film idol Lana Turner, authored by the star’s only daughter, Cheryl Crane. The ginormous tome, which must weigh at least twenty pounds (not kidding!), is named LANA: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies and, prior to reading it, I knew virtually nothing about the 1950s screen siren. Well, aside, of course, from the fact that she had been embroiled in one of the largest scandals ever to rock Tinseltown – the murder of smalltime gangster Johnny Stompanato, which took place inside of Lana’s rented Beverly Hills manse. So after finishing the book several weeks ago, I decided that the timing could not have been more perfect for me to do some stalking of Lana’s former residence and blog about it during my Haunted Hollywood month.

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Lana rented the large Colonial-style house pictured above in the Spring of 1958, shortly after returning to Los Angeles from England where she had been filming Another Time, Another Place with actor Sean Connery. The 6-bedroom, 6-bath, 6,769-square-foot home had originally been built in 1930 for Gone with the Wind actress Laura Hope Crews. At the time she moved in, Lana had been embroiled in a year-long turbulent romance with Johnny Stompanato, a womanizer who was best known for being mobster Mickey Cohen’s bodyguard. Lana had reportedly been trying to break up with Stompanato for several weeks, all to no avail. On the night of April 4th, 1958, only three days after she had moved into the residence, Lana had once again thrown in the towel on the relationship. After hearing the news, Johnny threatened to cut up Lana’s face and harm both her mother, “Gran”, and 14-year-old Cheryl, who had just returned home from boarding school. In the book, Cheryl describes what happened next as follows: “After John arrived, I sat in my bedroom writing a term paper while I heard his vicious threats carry through the house. In a panic I ran downstairs and into the kitchen, where on the sink counter lay one of the knives Mother had bought earlier in the day. The thought of scaring him away flashed into my mind. I went back up the stairs to Mother’s bedroom and stood outside of her door for a few moments as Stompanato continued threatening to disfigure her. Suddenly Mother threw open the door. John came up from behind, his arm raised as if to strike. I took a step forward and he ran on the knife in my hands. Stompanato looked at me and said, ‘My God, Cheryl, what have you done?’ before falling to the floor. He was dead within moments.”

Cheryl was taken to juvenile hall shortly after the killing and a coroner’s inquest was opened just a few days later, during which Lana testified. The coroner’s jury, who deliberated for a scant 20 minutes, ending up ruling Johnny’s death a justifiable homicide, acquitting Cheryl of all charges. And while theories abound that Lana was actually the one who did the stabbing and used her daughter as a scapegoat in order to avoid jail time and career ruin, legendary author James Ellroy thinks otherwise. In a February 2011 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, he said, “People love to think something is inherently more dramatic, more secret, crazier, uglier, more vicious and vile. People love the inside scoop and will deny all the facts even when they are hit directly over the head with them. It’s a very, very, very common phenomenon to ascribe more intrigue to a prosaic event than the prosaic event truly demands." The world will perhaps never know the exact truth about what happened at 730 North Roxbury Drive on the evening of April 4th, 1958, but I find it absolutely amazing that people are still enthralled with the murder more than five decades later.

According to Cheryl, Lana’s bedroom, where the murder took place, was located on the second floor of the home on the far left-hand side. Lana moved out of the house immediately following the events of April 4th, 1958, only living on the premises a grand total of a few days. According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, actress Virginia Bruce also once lived in the home, as did host Merv Griffin.

Cheryl Crane on the Johnny Stompanato Murder

You can watch an interview with Cheryl, in which she talks about the murder, by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to my grandma for giving me LANA: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies, without which I would not have had most of the information with which to write this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lana Turner’s former house, where Johnny Stompanato’s murder took place, is located at 730 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills.