An old Cadillac hearse parked on Sunset is a portal into the town’s dark past, and Dec. 12 marked the revival of Grave Line Tours, a ghost and celebrity-murder tour company first founded decades ago.
The “Divas, Drag Queens and Decay” experience, a survey with a focus on Hollywood’s historically marginalized members of society: sex workers, people of color, and members of the queer community, begins at the Chancellor Apartments, where the Black Dahlia once lived (paying a dollar in rent per night); passes by the former Richfield Gas Station at 4777 Hollywood Blvd., where gigolo and pimp to the stars Scotty Bowers plied his trade; moves on to El Coyote, where Sharon Tate had her last meal; stops at a storefront on Beverly Boulevard that was once a bathhouse frequented by Rock Hudson; idles in front of the WeHo apartment where Sal Mineo lived and was fatally stabbed in the driveway; drives up to Greystone Mansion, where Ned Doheny was murdered by his secretary Hugh Plunkett in what is thought by some to have been a lover’s quarrel; and passes by The Beverly Hilton, where Whitney Houston was found.
QR codes inside the limos direct riders to photos and audio clips — everything from a Mae West interview to the Menendez brothers’ fake 911 call when they “found” their murdered parents in their Beverly Hills home. The company also offers a Black Dahlia Tour and one on Charles Manson’s Murder Spree.
This story first appeared in the Dec. 16 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
