The Most Haunted Places in LA and the Stories Behind Them

Los Angeles has always had a complicated relationship with the past. Buildings get renamed, repurposed, renovated, and turned into something entirely different, but the stories tend to stick around.

Here are the places responsible for some of LA’s most enduring ghost stories.

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• Cecil Hotel (source)
  
  • Downtown LA
  • Built in 1924 and beleaguered with misfortune ever since, the Cecil Hotel is one of LA’s most notorious haunted spots. It’s the grim home to at least 16 different murders, suicides, and unexplained events. To top it off, it has even housed some of history’s most notorious serial killers while they were on killing sprees, including the Night Stalker (Richard Ramirez) and Jack Unterweger. The hotel was partially rebranded as Stay on Main in 2011, but its grisly history followed. Today, the former hotel has been converted into affordable housing.
• Pantages Theater (source)
  
  • Hollywood
  • As the legend goes, a young aspiring performer died in the mezzanine during a show in 1932 and her voice continues to drift through the auditorium. It’s said that during a 1994 live performance, her voice was heard by the entire audience while the stage stood empty. Theater-goers also report sightings of the late Howard Hughes, who bought the theater in 1949. He has reportedly been seen walking through a wall where the door to his office used to be and sitting in the back of the balcony.
• Pico House (source)
  
  • Downtown LA
  • Although built in 1870 to be an exquisite upscale hotel, Pico House is located in an area that’s seen race-fueled violence including a massacre of Chinese immigrants right outside the building’s walls. Some believe this violence led to paranormal activity throughout the building such as apparitions and the sound of footsteps. It’s also thought that the hotel’s founder, Don Pío Pico, continues to entertain guests at the hotel well into his afterlife. It’s now an event venue, which we think Don Pío Pico would have liked.
• Rosenheim Mansion (source)
  
  • Arlington Heights
  • Presently most famous as the “Murder House” in season 1 of American Horror Story, the Rosenheim Mansion has borne witness to several tragedies. It began with the untimely death of its original owner, then saw mysterious or tragic deaths of several subsequent owners. During the time it was used as a film location, staff and visitors reported sightings of a woman in white, believed to be a former resident who tragically died in the home, and a young boy seen playing in the gardens. There have also been reports of disembodied voices and footsteps, and doors opening and closing on their own. The home is now privately owned.
• Colorado Street Bridge (source)
  
  • Pasadena
  • Tragically known as Suicide Bridge, Colorado Street Bridge has seen many people take their own lives. Between 1919 and 1937 - during the worst of the Depression - it’s reported that at least 87 people died by their own hand by jumping from the bridge. In the years since, sightings have been reported of two distinct vanishing figures - one, a man in wire-rimmed glasses and the other, a woman in a flowing robe. The Arroyo Seco below has also generated accounts of unexplained sights and sounds.
• Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (source)
  
  • Hollywood
  • Glitz, glamour and ghostly encounters abound at this iconic landmark. As the venue for the first Academy Awards in 1929 and hot spot of Old Hollywood, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was home to stars like Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Monroe, who lived in the hotel for two years, is said to be seen as a reflection in a full-length mirror that once adorned her room. Other spectral figures are also frequently seen, including Montgomery Clift rehearsing his lines and a little girl in a blue dress in the upper floors. Guests have also heard splashing from an empty pool, felt sudden chills or a phantom touch, and heard whispers in the elevators.
• The Entity House (source)
  
  • Culver City
  • Doris Bither and her family, who lived at this home in the 1970s, experienced paranormal attacks by what she described as three distinct entities. A 10-week investigation by two student parapsychologists at UCLA found light orbs and moving objects in the home that lent some credence to Doris’s story. This incident inspired the 1978 novel, and then the 1982 film, The Entity. Although Doris’s fate is unclear, the house seems to be free of further paranormal encounters and continues to be a private residence.
• Linda Vista Hospital (source)
  
  • Boyle Heights
  • One of the area’s oldest hospitals, Linda Vista opened in 1905 to serve employees of the Santa Fe Railroad. After new ownership failed to renew its reputation, the hospital’s continuous decline led to its closing in 1991. It became a filming location for television and movies, during which time its haunted reputation started to grow. Film crews have reported darting shadows, and the disembodied sounds of cries and humming. Three spirits in particular are known at the hospital: a child in the surgical room, a woman pacing the third floor hallways, and an orderly still making his rounds. The former hospital has since been restored and converted into Hollenbeck Terrace, a low-income apartment community for seniors.
• The Queen Mary (source)
  
  • Long Beach
  • Over its 3 decades at sea, the RMS Queen Mary made 1,001 transatlantic crossings and saw 49 deaths onboard. One of the many legends and hauntings surrounding the ship is the true story of a crew member who was crushed by a watertight door during a safety drill. Visitors and staff have since reported clanging sounds in that area, and even report being chased by a shadow figure. The boat is now a floating hotel and tourist attraction.
• Griffith Park (source)
  
  • Griffith Park
  • Haunts (and not the hayride kind) abound in Griffith Park. The land was originally owned by Don Antonio Feliz, who planned to leave it to his niece, Dona Petranilla, until he was convinced on his deathbed to sell the land to nefarious businessmen. As legend goes, Dona cursed the land which then brought bad fortune to its subsequent owners. There have since been many sightings of Dona’s ghost wearing a white gown and riding a white horse through the park, and staring from the window of the Paco Feliz Adobe house. This is only one of many haunting tales and spirits that plague the park.
• The Silent Movie Theater (source)
  
  • Beverly Grove
  • Founded in 1942 by John Hampton, the Silent Movie Theater’s purpose was to preserve silent movies as they were meant to be seen. John lived above the theater for 45 years and eventually died of cancer caused by chemicals he used to preserve films. Along with the ghost of Laurence Austin, who was later murdered in the lobby, John’s presence has reportedly been heard and felt throughout the theater and upstairs apartment. Several equipment failures and malfunctions during modern screenings are attributed to John’s disapproval. The cinema is now Brain Dead Studios.
• Musso & Frank Grill (source)
  
  • Hollywood
  • A staple of Hollywood’s social and professional scene from the 20s to the 60s, Musso & Frank was regularly patronized by big names like F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, and Orson Welles. One of its most famous ghostly presences is Charlie Chaplin, who was a regular for decades. To this day, staff and visitors report seeing his ghost sitting alone in his favorite back booth, smelling hair pomade, and hearing laughter and applause from the empty back room. A few servers have even taken an order from a man matching his description only to return to an empty booth.
• Clifton’s Republic (source)
  
  • Downtown LA
  • The landmark Depression-era restaurant, Clifton’s Cafeteria, was founded by Clifford Clifton and his wife, Nelda, in 1931 and was then passed along to their children until it was sold in 2010. In 2015 during a major restoration, workers reported seeing the apparition of a blonde woman from the Jazz Age period. In fact, she appears in two photos and a video screen grab taken by three different workers. Most people believe that this is the ghost of Clifton’s long-time mistress, Terri Richmond, whose cremated ashes were spread at the site in 2011. The restaurant has had several closures but is currently open Friday and Saturday evenings.
• Hollywood Forever Cemetery (source)
  
  • Hollywood
  • Since 1899, Hollywood Forever Cemetery has been home to big names of the film industry. As a cemetery, it naturally has a long history of reported haunts. One of the most famous is that of Rudolph Valentino, a silent film actor who died at the age of 31 and was interred at the cemetery. A woman in black reportedly left flowers at his crypt on the anniversary of his death, and her figure has reportedly been seen on the anniversary in subsequent years. The ghost of Valentino, dressed in the fashion of his time, has also reportedly been seen at his resting place.
• Greystone Mansion (source)
  
  • Beverly Hills
  • Built in 1928 for Ned Doheny by his father, Greystone Mansion saw only one year before tragedy struck within its walls. On a fateful night in February 1929, Ned and his close friend and business partner, Hugh Plunkett, both died by gunshot in the home. Ned’s wife, Lucy, was also present in the home and called the doctor. Although the official story was a murder-suicide, there are unanswered questions about what really led to the men’s deaths, with some suspecting Lucy of pulling the trigger. Now open to the public, visitors to Greystone Mansion’s grounds have reported hearing a disembodied female voice believed to be Lucy, faucets turning on by themselves, and the smell of death in the bedroom where the men’s bodies were found. 
• The Magic Castle (source)
  
  • Hollywood
  • After being built as a residence in 1909, in which the original owner passed away, this building famously opened as the Magic Castle in 1963. In addition to the mysterious arts of illusion, the Magic Castle is home to mysterious paranormal entities. Most famously, it’s home to the Houdini seances, originally started by Houdini’s wife after his passing to validate (or disprove) his notorious skepticism of mediums. For what it’s worth, she never made contact with him, but the seances continue to this day. Several ghosts - including magician Dai Vernon and  bartender Loren Tate - have reportedly been seen regularly attending to their jobs. The staff have leaned into the haunted reputation, creating the character “Invisible Irma,” supposedly the ghost of a regular guest from the early 1900s, who will play any song on the music room’s piano upon request.
• The Comedy Store (source)
  
  • West Hollywood
  • Before it became The Comedy Store, the building housed Ciro's, one of the most glamorous nightclubs on the Sunset Strip, frequented by Hollywood stars and organized-crime figures. Its haunted reputation is extremely established in LA lore. Comedians including Sam Kinison, Leslie Jones, Bobby Lee and Joe Rogan have described strange experiences there, from apparitions to moving furniture. The LA Times calls it one of LA's famously haunted landmarks.
• Millennium Biltmore Hotel (source)
  
  • Downtown LA
  • Steeped in Old Hollywood history and paranormal tales, this landmark hotel is best known as the final place Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) was spotted prior to her gruesome 1947 death. Her spectral figure is frequently reported wandering the halls, a legendary haunting that the LA Times has tracked since the 1980s.

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