Mario Becerra at Evergreen Cemetery, East Los Angeles. Photo: Frank Argueta, WoTR Radio 2016
What do ghost sightings at an abandoned hospital, a dwarf-like Baphomet creature at a cemetery, and the rather memorable capture of serial killer, Richard Ramirez, all have in common? They are all occurrences of East Los Angeles. Though perhaps not the first place that pops to mind when you think “ghosts” and “haunted,” it sure looks like East LA has seen its fair share of creepy tales; and, luckily for us, author Mario Becerra was kind enough to join us on the show to share some of his research.
Haunted East Los Angeles, Artwork by Gloria Negrete
Mario is a prime example of someone who has a plan, and just goes straight for it – upon discovering that there were a number of paranormal stories centering around the East LA area, he decided to compile those stories and publish them as a book. Haunted East Los Angeles was released June 2015, and is available both as a hard copy and as an ebook. Actively going out and interviewing people, Mario has amassed a number of scary stories thus far, and will be broadening his scope very soon via his new book, Haunted Los Angeles, which shall encompass stories from all around LA.
A personal favourite of ours is Chapter 5 of Haunted East LA, not least because it focuses on Linda Vista Community Hospital (now Linda Vista Senior Apartments…a debatable use of that building, considering its history…). Frank has told us many-a-story from his experiences at Linda Vista, including a rather frightening tale based around an EVP that was caught during an investigation, and an extremely terrifying video-capture of a female silhouette appearing behind a glass door (a couple of the stories were recapped during our interview, so fret not if you haven’t heard them).
Mario Becerra at Evergreen Cemetery, East Los Angeles. Photo: Frank Argueta, WoTR Radio 2016.
As mentioned, Mario is an avid researcher, and makes it a point to physically go out, explore various locations, and ask locals about their potential paranormal stories. He’s been whetting our appetite by telling us a little about his explorations for his upcoming book - he recently announced that the first featured location shall be the Roosevelt Hotel, and there’s an exclusive excerpt on his Facebook page for those interested in keeping up with his writing.
We were fortunate enough to also book a quick afternoon with Mario, where we managed to shoot a brief interview with him on Hubbard St., the area where Becerra grew up, and incidentally the area where Richard Ramirez was captured back in ’85. He told us a few exciting stories concerning this event, and its certainly a great watch if you’re in any way interested in LA history, serial killers, or morbid tales (all of the above probably compound in general).
In any case, we hope you enjoy listening to both the audio and video interview, and we hope to see you in the chat during the show with us soon. Don't forget to keep up-to-date with Haunted East Los Angeles on Facebook and grab your copy of the book (Kindle edition also available in Spanish). Lastly, we couldn't let Mario go without asking him for his Top 5 so, check out Mario's Top 5 List of historic haunted places:
