Bruce Dern and director Alfred Hitchcock behind the scenes of his last film Family Plot (1976) Copyright Universal Pictures 

Behind the scenes of Dial M For Murder (1954) Copyright Warner Bros.

Similarities between the play and the film adaptations of Dial M For Murder 

the murderer’s guesthouse

Subconscious feeling - SHORT 2017

Who You Are - (very) Short Film 2017

A little piece I made out of boredom. Want to do more work on Manson in the future.

Robert “Bob” Christian Hansena.k.a.“The Butcher Baker”  targeted prostitutes and topless dancers in their mid-teens to early 40s. After soliciting them, he would abduct them and take them to a meat shack by bush plane. He later stated that he would let them live if they submitted to his sexual fantasies. The ones who didn’t were raped anyway, then stripped naked and set loose in the wilderness where he would hunt them with a .223 hunting rifle. After finally killing them, he would take pieces of jewelry from them as trophies and bury the bodies in the area, marking the burial sites on a map. The women he didn’t kill would be raped and forced into having oral sex with him or sexually assaulted with the handles of hammers and broomsticks.

Jack the Stripper would travel around Hammersmith in search of victims, preferably caucasian prostitutes with dark hair. He would then abduct them, take them to a remote location where for two or three days it was suspected that the Stripper tortures the victims. He would then proceed to strangle, undress and dump them hence his most recent nickname. The nickname arose because of the similarities between him and Jack the Ripper —murdering prostitutes in London—though Jack the Stripper’s spree came nearly a century later.

The police suspected the perpetrator of the Stripper killings to be a misogynist, he would have hated women due to a previous bad experience with one. Profilers had thought his mother may have committed suicide which could have prompted his father to leave him too. His method of stripping the victims of their clothes is his attempt at reducing them to trash. He would have been in his late twenties to early thirties during the 1964-1965 assaults.

He would have knowledge of police investigative methods and evidence gathering techniques and may have Armed Services/Law Enforcement experience. He might have a history of psychiatric care and attempted treatment of antisocial personality disorder. The killer might have a criminal record that was expunged, it would have been for small crimes such as burglary, animal cruelty and vandalism. He would have a history of violence against women and may be married albeit unlikely.

The unknown serial killer murdered 6-8 women from 1964 to 1965.

Chief Superintendent John Du Rose of Scotland Yard, the detective put in charge of the case, interviewed almost 7,000 suspects. In the spring of 1965, the investigation into the murders encountered a major breakthrough when a sample of paint which perfectly matched that recovered from several victims’ bodies was found beneath a concealed transformer at the rear of a building on the Heron Factory Estate in Acton. This factory estate faced a paint spraying shop. Shortly thereafter, Du Rose held a news conference in which he falsely announced that the police had narrowed the suspect pool down to 20 men and that, by a process of elimination, these suspects were being eliminated from the investigation. After a short time, he announced that the suspect pool contained only 10 members, and then three. There were no further known Stripper killings following the initial news conference. 

The most likely suspect, a security guard working for a factory where the paint was traced, committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning shortly after, leaving a note for his wife that read: “I can’t stick it any longer…. To save you and the police looking for me I’ll be in the garage.”

Amber Hagerman and her brother Ricky were riding bikes in their neighborhood in Arlington, Texas on January 13, 1996. After venturing into an abandoned parking lot, Ricky left Amber to return home for fear of breaking their mother’s rules of riding too far away. When Amber didn’t return with Ricky, Amber’s parents and grandparents left in search of her. Finding a police officer at the scene, they were told a man had called the cops when he heard a young girl screaming and saw a man carrying a young girl to his truck. Four days later, after an extensive search, Amber’s body was found stabbed to death near a drainage ditch. Despite the horror of the case, it led to the development of the AMBER Alert system.

In 2007, Russian serial killer Alexander Pichushkin was convicted of killing 48 people. Most of his murders occurred in the early 2000s. He would lure people into Moscow’s Bittsevsky Park by asking them to have a drink with him over his dog’s grave. He would then beat his victims to death with a blunt instrument and leave them in a sewer pit, sometimes while they were still alive.

He was arrested in 2006 after murdering a coworker who had told her son that she was going on a walk with Pichushkin. After his arrest, police found a chessboard with dates written on 62 of the 64 squares. Apparently, he was trying to kill as many people as there were squares on the board, which resulted in him being nicknamed “The Chessboard Killer.” In 2007, he was convicted of 48 counts of murder and 3 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The Cecil Hotel

               One of the most notorious hotels in the world is the Cecil Hotel.  It is not famous for its glitz and glamour; Instead it is known for its many mysterious deaths, abnormally high record of suicides, infamous guests, for being a popular spot to deal and use drugs, and for being the perfect place to lie low for those who have committed crimes.  It is was also the inspiration to the American Horror Story season five, Hotel.

               The Cecil Hotel was built in 1924 in Downtown Los Angeles.  It cost 1.5 million dollars to build, with a total of 2.5 million being invested into it. The hotel boasted 19 floors and 700 guest rooms.  However, despite intentions for the hotel to be a fancy and popular destination for the wealthy and famous, it started to gradually decline once the Great Depression hit. Despite this, it managed to remain a popular destination throughout the 1940s. After this decade it began to rapidly decline as the area, now known as Skid Row, became populated with homeless people, drug addicts and dealers, and others who have committed serious crimes.

               Unlike other hotels, the Cecil Hotel boasts a high number of suicides, murders, and mysterious deaths.  The first suicide to take place was that of Percy Ormond Cook in 1927. He shot himself in the head while inside of his hotel room after failing to make up with his wife and child.   After him was W.K. Norton.  Norton killed himself in 1931 in his room after taking poison capsules.  Other deaths were from jumping from high rooms, poison capsules, gunshots to the head, and slitting their own throat. A more disturbing death was that of Dorthy Purcells newborn son.  Purcell shared a room with her boyfriend, Ben Levine, who was unaware that she was pregnant. While there she went into labor. Not wanting to wake her boyfriend, she went into the bathroom where she gave birth to a boy.  She thought he was dead and threw him out of the window.  Purcell was charged with murder, but was not found guilty due to being declared insane.  Another tragic suicide was that of Pauline Otton.  She jumped from her 9^th story window and landed on a pedestrian. The pedestrian, George Gianinni, was killed instantly.  

Other than suicides, there have been other tragic and mysterious deaths.  “Pidgon Goldie” Osgood was found raped, stabbed and beaten in her room.  Hours later, Jaques Ehlinger was seen walking around in bloodstained clothing. Although, he was arrested for her murder, he was later release.  It is still an unsolved crime. Finally, one of the most recent and famous deaths to occur at the Cecil Hotel was that of Elisa Lam.  Lam went missing for several weeks. The only clue they had to her whereabouts was a surveillance video of her getting on to an elevator and acting strange. She seemed paranoid, hiding in the corner of the elevator, and peeking nervously around its edges.  Despite Lam having pushed several buttons to multiple floors, the elevator remained stationary with the doors open.  At one point Lam was seen getting out of the elevator and gesturing wildly, as if having a confrontation with someone.   Almost three weeks from the date she had gone missing, guests began to complain of the water in their rooms tasting funny.  It was then that they found Lams decomposing body in one of the water supply tanks. Although she was inexplicably naked, there were no signs of foul play.  Authorities believe that the fact that Elisa was Bipolar could have played a large part in her death.  In some cases, those with Bipolar, who are not taking their meds, can have hallucinations and experience other disturbing symptoms.  Her death was ruled and accidental drowning.

The Cecil Hotel had also played home to two well known serial killers. The first, was Richard Ramirez. Most commonly known as the “Night Stalker,” Ramirez was rumored to have stayed at the Cecil for a few weeks. It is believed that during his stay he may have continued with his killing spree. The second serial killer to stay there was an Austrian man known as Jack Unterweger.  Unterweger stayed at the Cecil in 1991. He may have sought to copy Ramirez’s crimes. While staying at the Cecil he strangled and killed at least three sex workers  

               Surprisingly there seems to be very little claims online that there are ghosts at the Cecil Hotel. However, when Ghost Adventures went to investigate they claim they were physically scratched. They also found compelling audio and video evidence.  

If you or someone you know has ever stayed at the Cecil Hotel and have had any spooky experiences, please let us know! We would love to hear about any creepy happenings at the hotel.

Sources:

(http//en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Hotel(Los_Angeles)

www.travelchannel.com