In Burbank, there’s a cemetery named for a mythical land of the dead that today is known as the burial place of many famous aviators. It didn’t start out on the up-and-up, however. In our season two finale, Hadley recalls how Valhalla Memorial Park began as a grift, and its criminal legacy still casts a shadow today.This podcast was researched, wri…

His name is forever associated with largest park, and indeed Griffith Park is one of the jewels of the city even today. But that legacy — and the bronze statue standing at the park’s entrance — belie a less-often told story a troubled man who shot his wife in the face.This podcast was researched, written and narrated by Hadley Meares. Follow her on…

One Saturday in December, 1927, Los Angeles was rocked by news of the gruesome murder of a child. A citywide manhunt for the killer quickly spread across state lines, and terrified Angelenos were even more surprised when the culprit turned out to be a 19-year-old who looked more like a Hollywood leading man than a craven villain.Find out more about…

In August of 1935, Robert S. James committed one of the worst-planned murders in the history of Los Angeles, in the process earning himself the nickname "the Rattlesnake Killer" and also revealing a history of previous suspicious deaths.Find out more about Underbelly L.A. on the official website: https://www.underbellyla.comUnderbelly L.A. on Twitt…

In the second installment of our series looking into L.A. criminals who were decidedly not masterminds, Hadley examines Burmah White. Was she a bad girl? Or a good girl led astray by the worst kind of guy?Find out more about Underbelly L.A. on the official website: https://www.underbellyla.comUnderbelly L.A. on Twitter: https://twitter.com/underbel…

The new season of Underbelly L.A. looks not at the city’s criminal masterminds but at the city’s criminal also-rans, who gained infamy in spite of themselves. And we’re kicking off the new run with the story of Hazel Glab, whose amusingly flawed plot for murder made her an early L.A. media star.Find out more about Underbelly L.A. on the official we…

More than the host of Underbelly L.A., Hadley Meares is a journalist, historian, explorer and occasional stand-in for Amy Poehler. As she prepares for the second season of this podcast, she sat down for an interview with Underbelly L.A. producer Drew Mackie about just how a girl from North Carolina comes to love Los Angeles in all its seamy glory.G…

One evening in 1958, an explosion shattered not only the quiet peace of the Christmas season but also perceptions about the World Knowledge Faith Love Fountain of the World, a clunkily named religious sect based in Southern California. It’s just one of the many cults to bloom in the area, and we’re closing out the first season of Underbelly L.A. wi…

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rootless men flooded into Los Angeles, looking for sunshine and, often, a new beginning. Many of them ended up in the downtown district known as Skid Row, and once there, they elicited both hostile and charitable reactions from better-off Angelenos. You could say the same of L.A. residents of the prese…

Jeanne French lived big and flew high, and it’s insult to injury that her grisly murder would end up overshadowing all she did with her life. In this episode, Hadley looks into circumstances around French’s 1947 murder, the “werewolf killer” panic that gripped Los Angeles around the time she died, and the possible connections the so-called Lipstick…

Have you heard the one about the woman in the water tank? That’s not a setup for a joke so much as an urban legend rooted in one of the most tragic establishments in Los Angeles: the Hotel Cecil. Most famous for being the backdrop for the mysterious death of tourist Elisa Lam in 2013, the Hotel Cecil’s macabre history goes back to 1929 and, as Hadl…

One evening in 1940, nine-year-old Dorothy Lee Gordon was kidnapped as in the most insidious of ways: simply and quietly by a man whom, according to her friend, pulled up alongside them as they walked home from church and said “Get in the car, Dorothy. I’m going your way.” Weeks later, Dorothy would be found dead, and to this day, her murder has no…

The night of February 17, 1929, left two bodies on the floor of the imposing Greystone Mansion of Beverly Hills. To this day, we don’t know the exact circumstances of Ned Doheny and his personal secretary, Hugh Plunkett, but Hadley lays out the various rumors and theories regarding what transpired on that fateful night.Find out more about Underbell…

Celebrated in Los Angeles as both an actress and a restaurateur, Thelma Todd was found dead in the front seat of her Lincoln Phaeton on the morning of December 16, 1935. To this day, we can’t say for certain whether Todd died as a result of an accident or more sinister circumstances. In this episode, Hadley lays out the best guesses as to what real…

What’s in the box? What’s in the box?! A hatbox is inherently suggestive of a bygone era, in which men and women wore proper hats that they would protect in transit with a container called a hatbox. In this week’s story about Winnie Ruth Judd’s 1931 arrival by train in Los Angeles, a hatbox gets used for a grossly inappropriate purpose that ends up…

Long before Los Angeles drew tourists wanting to glimpse the good life, it attracted gawkers who wanted a look at downtown’s seedy vice-ridden backside. Our second episode focuses on the part of L.A. once known as Hell’s Half Acre, a kingdom of a red light district ruled by one Bartolo Ballerino — an irascible cuss of a man who held on to his realm…

Underbelly L.A. kicks off its first season with a trip far into the city’s past. In 1836, one of early Los Angeles’ most prominent families, the Felizes, saw their son struck down. A manhunt resulted in mob rule and a double execution — and a permanent stain on the young city’s history books. Find out more about Underbelly L.A. on the official webs…

Host Hadley Meares explains what stories she has unearthed for the inaugural season of Underbelly L.A., a podcast all about the stories that unfold in the shadows, far from the Hollywood spotlight.بقلم Underbelly L.A.