Secrets Revealed As Old Crimes Get A New Set of Eyes - From The SLA To DNA

Gentle reader...

Hallowe'en is over, but the dead still have so many things to teach us. On Sunday we'll be in the teaching crime lab of Cal State Los Angeles for From The SLA To DNA, our final forensic science seminar fundraiser of 2017. Join Professor Donald Johnson as he presents two talks on 1970s-era crime scene investigation, viewed through the lens of contemporary techniques. Your ticket purchase helps support cutting edge research by the CSULA Criminalistics department.

It promises to be a full and fascinating program. Up first, top arson detective Mike Digby and author Brad Schreiber with a joint presentation on the Symbionese Liberation Army, 1970s revolutionary violence and the then-new tactical strategies of SWAT, as seen on millions of TVs during the shocking May 1974 shoot out on East 54th Street in South Los Angeles. Both will have their true crime books for sale. Then, Beverly Kerr, Supervising Criminalist in the DNA section of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Crime Laboratory, shares how the 1978 cold case murder of Leslie Karen Long was recently solved by her department after almost four decades.

And on Saturday, we're on the bus with the Weird West Adams crime and social history tour, featuring terrible tales in beautiful buildings, and a stroll through historic Rosedale Cemetery. Join us, do!

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RECENTLY TOURED

Spotted this incredible atomic motel sign in Lakewood and the nice fellow in the office turned the neon on for us.

LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 11/5

Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State Los Angeles under the direction of Professor Donald Johnson to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On November 5, 2017, join us for From the SLA to DNA, an afternoon of insights into historic investigations and new crime science. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. Sold out with waiting list. Click here for more info. Next forensic science seminar is Wrongful Convictions: Investigatory Case Studies from the California Innocence Project (March 4, 2018, info here).

RECOMMENDED READING

Occasionally, one of our gentle riders lets slip that they're working on an L.A. book. And the newest volume on that shelf is Suzanne Gates' just-released 1940s Hollywood murder mystery The Glamorous Dead, a grim tale of extras on the make, buried secrets and film star Barbara Stanwyck's odd fascination with the heroine's troubles. Set against the backdrop of the making of Preston Sturges' comic masterpiece The Lady Eve, and scrupulously researched at the Academy library, Paramount and LAPD archives and on our tour bus, this debut is a wild ride.

COMING SOON

WEIRD WEST ADAMS - SAT. 11/4... On this guided tour through the Beverly Hills of the early 20th Century, Crime Bus passengers thrill as Jazz Age bootleggers run amok, marvel at the Krazy Kafitz family's litany of criminal misbehavior, visit the shortest street in Los Angeles (15' long Powers Place, with its magnificent views of the mansions of Alvarado Terrace) and stroll the haunted paths of Rosedale Cemetery. Featured players include the most famous dwarf in Hollywood, mass suicide ringleader Reverend Jim Jones, wacky millionaires who can't control their automobiles, human mole bank robbers, comically inept fumigators, kids trapped in tar pits, and dozens of other unusual and fascinating denizens of early Los Angeles. (Buy tickets here.)

FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 11/5... Professor Donald Johnson hosts "From the SLA to DNA," a program on vintage and cutting edge crime investigations. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (Buy tickets here.)

EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 11/11... Go East, young ghoul, to Boyle Heights, where the Night Stalker was captured and to Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery. To East L.A., where a deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride in the shadow of the world's biggest tamale. To Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. To Montebello, scene of a horrifying case of child murder. That's Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged crime bus tour. (Buy tickets here.)

CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 11/18... Come explore Charles Bukowski's lost Los Angeles and the fascinating contradictions that make this great local writer such a hoot to explore. Haunts of a Dirty Old Man is a raucous day out celebrating liquor, ladies, pimps and poets. The tour includes a visit to Buk's DeLongpre bungalow, where you'll see the Cultural-Historic Monument sign that we helped to get approved, and a mid-tour provisions stop at Pink Elephant Liquor. New: souvenir Bukowski's L.A. booklet available. (Buy tickets here.)

SPECIAL EVENT: RICHARD'S BIRTHDAY BUS - IN SEARCH OF IMPERIAL CALIFORNIA - SAT. 11/25... Join us for a full day exploring the the history, landscape and built environment of Irvine, Lake Forest, Norwalk and Downey. From ancient eucalyptus groves to historic psychiatric institutions to the mid-century master plans of William Pereira (this portion led by architect and historian Alan Hess) to delicious birthday cake, it's bound to be an illuminating bus adventure. (Learn more about this one-time-only tour, or reserve your spot, here.)

PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 12/2... The Crown City masquerades as a calm and refined retreat, where well-bred ladies glide around their perfect bungalows and everyone knows what fork to use first. But don't be fooled by appearances. Dip into the confidential files of old Pasadena and meet assassins and oddballs, kidnappers and slashers, black magicians and all manner of maniac in a delightful little tour you won't find recommended by the better class of people. (Buy tickets here.)

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 12/9... Through the 1940s, downtown was the true city center, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core, and is especially recommended for downtown residents curious about their neighborhood's neglected history. (Buy tickets here.)

Additional upcoming tours: The Real Black Dahlia (1/6), Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles (1/13), The Birth of Noir (1/20), The Lowdown on Downtown (1/27).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

In Episode #122: Bunker Hill & The French Village: Two Lost Los Angeles Neighborhoods Taken By Eminent Domain, two stories of families torn from the places they loved, and the memories that survive. Plus another Pereira in Peril, Ports O' Call shopkeepers & more. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

The Cranky Preservationist, who loves Los Angeles and HATES what you’re doing to it, returns! Episode 12: Sweet Sidewalk Blues (Facebook, YouTube).

How to pay for the Pershing Square redesign that isn't the popular favorite return to John Parkinson’s 1910 design? Raise taxes on local developments; seek nebulous grants. Or we could restore!

San Francisco looks back in anger at its scorched earth “urban renewal” redevelopment policies.

A Little Rascals then/now video has Hal Roach's comic scamps raising Cain at a lost relic of Californio-era West LA.

Three underwhelming proposals for the Angels Landing parcel. Sadly, city council intends to pick one to be Angels Flight’s neighbor. UCLA is speculative, the offset box tower is silly, Handel’s wedge is adequate. Is adequate the best L.A. can do?

Videoette: Eye on L.A. hops on the Esotouric crime bus in search of historic Hallowe’en hijinks.

Catch up on our weird Los Angeles history vignettes that aired all Hallowe’en week on KPCC radio's Take Two.

Fodor’s rates our The Real Black Dahlia one of the 10 Creepiest True Crime Tours in America. See for yourself January 6.

Half a billion dollars to tear down Welton Becket's iconic Parker Center, when adaptive reuse would save millions, and a landmark. Becket’s young associate Louis Naidorf asks why the city would demolish such a pleasant, adaptable office building?

Thanks to the passionate advocacy of preservationists, the endangered Hollywood Reporter building is likely to become a landmark.

Help preserve Musicians’ Union Local 47, a landmark of Hollywood and civil rights history.

The Mayfair, where Raymond Chandler honed his lifelong habit of threatening suicide if a friend hung up the phone, is threadbare no more.

Grand Central Market celebrates its centennial, quietly changes hands. What's next for L.A.'s historic breadbasket?

RIP to our friend Irving Shore, aged 103. Here he is giving us a lesson in chair design history from Kim's grandparents' The OGs’ blog.

A preservation grant will bring the Formosa Cafe back to its rail car roots.

Can Richard Neutra's lyrical post-and-beam Chuey House (1956) be saved?

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric