The first thing you want to know when you begin reading a true-crime story is why the author chose to write about that particular crime. Did he or she play a direct role in the crime or its investigation? Were they somehow intimately involved? Or was it for the same reason that we’re reading — the story was just irresistibly interesting?
Me, I’m a sucker for cursed settings (like the Cecil Hotel), appalling crimes (like the Lindbergh baby kidnapping) and really stupid fails (like the kidnappers who forgot to ask for ransom money). All of these are represented in the crimes I’ve lined up for you, along with some others almost too outlandish to describe.
The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is a palpable presence in GONE AT MIDNIGHT: The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam (Citadel/Kensington, 352 pp., $26), by Jake Anderson. Familiarly known as “the Suicide Hotel,” the Cecil had a morbid history as a sanctuary for sex offenders and other unsavory characters, as well as for being the site of numerous “murders, suicides, serial killers” and “reports of creepy paranormal stuff.” Perhaps its most infamous residents were Richard Ramirez, the notorious “Night Stalker,” and Jack Unterweger, aptly known as “the Austrian Ghoul.” But the hotel’s reputation took another major hit in 2013, when a 21-year-old Chinese-Canadian student named Elisa Lam died a most mysterious death.
