Cryptic L.A.

Wish your house were haunted? Need to attract tourists to your creepy old hotel, museum or otherwise spiritless landmark?
Even if your place didn’t come with spooks of its own, you can remedy the situation with Ghosts in a Bottle. That’s right: For a nominal fee, ghost-hunter Jon Deese will capture someone else’s phantasm, bottle it [...]

Poking around the web late last night, I stumbled on a brief but fascinating video by Tony Biasotti commemorating the infamous St. Francis Dam Disaster.
For those unfamiliar with the history, back in 1926, William Mulholland completed the dam to help ensure a steady water flow for a fledgling but rapidly growing Los Angeles. Townspeople celebrated [...]

I’m probably going to regret this. An open call for ghost stories is a sure way to attract crackpots, who will likely respond in far greater numbers than serious eye-witnesses. Nonetheless, here goes…
It’s no secret that for a while now, the legendary Feliz Curse has been a passion of mine. Thanks to years of rummaging [...]

A few years back, while researching an article on downtown haunts for a local newspaper, I canvassed the El Pueblo Monument for ghost tales. I wasn’t disappointed. According to numerous sources, many of the old landmarks there teem with spirits – including, possibly, L.A.’s first firehouse.
I say “possibly” because my initial investigations at the station [...]

Considering how the Black Dahlia was last seen leaving this majestic hotel just before her 1947 murder, you’d expect the Biltmore’s walls to be oozing with ectoplasm. And apparently they are — just not with hers.
As is often the case with upscale establishments, Millennium Biltmore management prefers not to indulge rumors of otherworldly guests. Nevertheless, [...]

The famed Porciuncula isn’t the only river to make a dramatic impact on Los Angeles. Believe it or not, on January 8, 1847, this otherwise unremarkable stretch of San Gabriel Riverbed in present-day Montebello was the most important site in all California, let alone for the City of Angels.
Here Gen. Jose Maria Flores’ Mexican militia [...]

Mary Bingham, a historian-writer based in Arizona, has completed another article in her fun and informative series about families and descendants of the famous Anza Expedition. Appearing in the June/July issue of the Tubac Villager, this installment focuses on Jose Vicente Feliz, a Los Angeles founder and first grantee of Rancho Los Feliz. She quotes [...]

Last week I received an e-mail from Mary Bingham, a historian-writer for the Tubac Villager in Arizona. Her message read in part:
I recently started to do stories on the Anza Expedition families and what happened to them after they left Tubac on Oct. 23, 1775. Your articles and Internet info about the Feliz family, the [...]