To live and die in LA
The Museum of Death is not for the faint of heart. The macabre collection centers around the more grisly aspects of kicking the bucket, with a heavy emphasis on serial killers.
Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Satan-loving Night Stalker, who terrorized California in the mid-1980s, has a display case all to himself featuring a few of his former possessions, a porn magazine, and some of his writing excerpts with thoughts on what makes a good night. Not to spoil the reveal, but it includes a full moon, sex, and drugs. Opposite is a wall full of clown drawings and paintings by murderer, rapist, and pedophile John Wayne Gacy. A small room in the back is dedicated to the Manson family. Charles Manson’s 12-string Epiphone guitar is mounted on the wall behind protective glass, while a dirty quilt, hand-stitched by the Manson women, hangs openly to the right, and a documentary including interviews with Charles Manson runs on a loop – a testament to how Los Angeles dreams of fame can go horrifically wrong.
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Address 6031 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028, +1 323.466.8011, www.museumofdeath.net, museumofdeath@sbcglobal.net | Public Transport Red Line to Hollywood/Vine Station, then a .3-mile walk | Getting there Free on-site lot | Hours Sun–Thu 11am–8pm, Fri 11am–9pm, Sat 11am–10pm; $15 admission| Tip Capitol Records (1750 Vine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90028), less than a half mile away, is called the House That Nat Built, in recognition of the enormous capital Nat King Cole brought to Capitol.
Speaking of cults, the Museum of Death acquired a collection of artifacts from the compound of the Heaven’s Gate cult when 38 members and their leader donned Nike sneakers and purple shrouds before ingesting a toxic concoction of phenobarbital-laced applesauce and vodka, in hopes of catching a ride on a space ship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet. The museum was originally established in San Diego, but was denied a lease renewal largely because of its publicized efforts to recreate a diorama of the Heaven’s Gate death scene. The collection relocated to Hollywood, bringing the controversial diorama with them.
Oddly beautiful and haunting are the Victorian pictures of child corpses. The custom was to photograph the dead in an open casket, often with flowers artfully arranged in the coffin. The result is a solemn and dignified tribute to the end of a life.
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