The ULTIMATE Murder & True Crime Tour: LA’s Darkest Stories | Michael Jackson, Menendez Brothers

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Today's tale begins overlooking the very iconic Hollywood sign for a very, very unique tour.

[00:00:08]Well, hello everyone and welcome to the episode of Dick Masker. I've arrived to Hollywood, California for another true crime expedition. Going to be taking another tour today with Graveline tours.

[00:00:16]Also, Vanessa is with me. We love taking these tours with Graveline. We've done one here on YouTube and I've also posted another one a while back, which is one of the first ones I did on Instagram. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see that one there. Now, this particular tour we're going to be taking today is called Death Becomes Her. It is a combination of the Banting Case, a little bit of the Menendez Brothers, and also going to be passing by Michael Jackson's house as well. It's going to be quite the tour. You've been wanting to take this one for a little while, right?

[00:00:41]>> I've been itching to do this tour for a while since I've seen your video that you did on Instagram.

[00:00:46]>> Now, that particular tour was about gangsters and mobsters all around LA and Beverly Hills. We are going to be going through those same areas, but today is going to be all about true crime. Let's go ahead and get started and let the tale begin. And here is where we're going to be taking the tour in the funeral limousine. They put death on the map. It's awesome. All right, let's do it. Thank you, >> buddy. And welcome to our grave line tour desk becomes her. My name to remind you is Blaze, as in Infernal Blaze.

[00:01:20]And you're riding in a lovingly restored Cadillac Fleetwood funeral limo. Let me know if you need anything along the way.

[00:01:29]If you're too hot, too cold, can't hear me. If you look at the grim photos and need a bath bag, I got our first stop of the tour is going to be the Highland Gardens Hotel. And this is where Janice Joplain was staying on October 4th of 1970 as her Hollywood Hills home was being renovated.

[00:01:55]Janice returned from a day of recording to the rather unfortunate news that both her fiance and her best girlfriend had flaked.

[00:02:08]And this is the landmark on the right.

[00:02:11]It's now the Highland Gardens with the glass frontage. If you look at that Yeah. That tree against the window, that behind the window is where Jalice's room was. Oh wow.

[00:02:27]>> So Janice came back down to the desk to ask for change for the cigarette machine. This is where every hotel had a cigarette machine.

[00:02:38]And that was the last anyone saw her alive.

[00:02:43]She was found following evening by her manager, face down between the wall and the bed, still clutching loose change and the cigarettes.

[00:02:56]Poor Janice.

[00:02:58]She'd been trying to quit heroin. It's not an easy thing to do. And she also knew she was living life on the edge.

[00:03:07]>> Narcotics. Police say possibly heroin is responsible for the death of the well-known rock singer Janice Joplin.

[00:03:13]Miss Joplin was found dead in her bedroom last night. She was 27 years old.

[00:03:30]>> So despite her young age, Janice had already set aside money for her funeral party.

[00:03:38]Joan Buyers wrote her a song and the Grateful Dead played to send her off.

[00:03:44]This was Janice's induction into the 27 Club of talented young artists who made it to fame early but never made it to 28. After that, Jim Morrison died in Paris Hotel Bathtub.

[00:04:02]a little more glamorous. But with Jim, the combination of drugs and hot water set his heart.

[00:04:11]>> Later on, both Kurt Cobain and Amy Wine House also joined the 27 Club.

[00:04:19]Stay off drugs, kids.

[00:04:22]So, you can rent Janice's room number 105.

[00:04:27]Um, if you do and you look inside the closet, you'll see a number of fan tributes to Janice. Fans write her messages. Nobody paints it over.

[00:04:39]And the room is also said to be somewhat haunted.

[00:04:43]It's said if you leave a little bottle of Southern Comfort out overnight, it may be gone when you get up in the morning.

[00:04:54]I'm not convinced that's paranormal activity.

[00:04:58]That sounds like somebody's boyfriend with a secret drinking problem.

[00:05:07]>> Is that the house that Michael jumps from?

[00:05:10]>> Yes.

[00:05:11]>> Okay.

[00:05:11]>> Oh, wow.

[00:05:12]>> From the original film.

[00:05:15]>> Yeah. This is where they filmed the 78 horror classic Halloween starring Jam Lee Curtis as Lorie Strode directed by John Car.

[00:05:26]>> Oh, it had walls where Michael Myers menaced Lori.

[00:05:31]>> There's a scene right there because over here on the left with the white picket fence is the house where Lor's best friend Annie was babysitting the Wallace's children.

[00:05:43]>> Oh, this one. This movie ruined babysitting for some kids at the time.

[00:05:49]So Annie and her friends were maniacally stabbed to death by Michael, who then used the house to peer creepily across the street at Lorie while he plotted his next move.

[00:06:04]Our next stop is the former home of a guy named Ed Plug. Ed was a wealthy older political donor. This was in 2018.

[00:06:15]He was known and respected in the Hollywood community, but a monster hiding in plain sight.

[00:06:23]Ed was a whitey white boy who had a thing for black guys that he met on a gay dating site, Adam for Adam.

[00:06:32]He lived right here at number 1234 Laurel. Apartment 17, top right, was the scene of the crime.

[00:06:43]So one of his young bows was Jermaine Gagnon, 28 years old. Ed would fly him in for weekend trips from Minnesota.

[00:06:53]It was something of a financial arrangement.

[00:06:58]Ed had a ritual which crossed the line from kinky to downright creepy.

[00:07:05]He would have Jermaine change into long white underwear. I know what you're thinking. very sexy. They go into a room with just a mattress and three fulllength mirrors suspended on robes.

[00:07:19]At which point, Edward encouraged Jermaine to shoot up on crystal meth.

[00:07:24]Jermaine's last visit didn't go so well.

[00:07:27]Ed gave him a spiked Gatorade. Was 26 years old, was found dead in Mark's apartment of an apparent overdose.

[00:07:39]The local black community were very upset when the LAPD refused to prosecute.

[00:07:46]Rightly so about 6 months later, >> it's crazy.

[00:07:51]>> They were protesting outside that apartment you just saw after Timothy Dean, 55 years old, was again found dead and overdosed there.

[00:08:04]This time an autopsy revealed that Ed had waited for 15 minutes before calling an ambulance.

[00:08:15]When Jermaine Kagnon came forward, finally Edmuck was convicted.

[00:08:21]He's now serving 30 years for his crimes.

[00:08:27]Kind of a uh Jeffrey Garmin type.

[00:08:31]>> Yeah.

[00:08:31]>> Except not the cannibalism. No, >> he drew the line there. That's going too far. Our next stop is not a murder house. It's not haunted, to my knowledge. It's just spooky.

[00:08:46]I think you'll like it.

[00:08:48]So, we're all going to get out here and take some photos.

[00:08:53]This is the Miss Medina House, also known as the witch's house.

[00:09:01]>> So, I have been here before. This is a pretty unique house.

[00:09:13]>> This is your first time here at this house, huh?

[00:09:15]>> First time. Yes.

[00:09:16]>> Yeah. It's beautiful. The owner is a little little iffy though.

[00:09:21]Definitely doesn't like too many people surrounding the house.

[00:09:24]>> House was built in by a silent movie company called Willlet Studios. They used it as a movie set, a production office, and dressing room up until they closed down. At which point, one of the producers, Was Scal, decided he wanted it for his personal residence. So, he had it picked up, do not ask me how, and brought to this very nice corner in Beverly Hills.

[00:09:52]>> Wow.

[00:09:52]>> Where it's been ever since.

[00:09:56]In 1957, Roger Corman filmed a piece of his movie The Undead right here and a piece of the original Clueless, filmed on this very sidewalk.

[00:10:10]>> Yeah.

[00:10:11]>> Interesting.

[00:10:12]>> And then eventually it fell into disrepair. It was slated for demolition in 2009.

[00:10:19]And a local realtor named Michael Leau bought the place. He did a very thorough interior exterior renovation and says now that 95 to 98% of the outside is actually new material made to look old.

[00:10:37]>> Would you like a picture at the minute?

[00:10:39]>> You want a picture?

[00:10:42]>> Always love coming to the house.

[00:10:44]>> Looks like they're doing some landscape tour right now.

[00:10:50]>> So cool. A lot of people come by here.

[00:10:52]You can see this is not just our tour group, but this is just other people coming to get some photos.

[00:10:58]>> The back is also nice. I've been to the alley. You can see the garage also matches the house.

[00:11:02]>> He still lives there.

[00:11:03]>> It is a res.

[00:11:05]>> Yeah. And if you want to see it inside, >> please don't pick the berries.

[00:11:12]The witch.

[00:11:14]>> Thank you so much. That's good.

[00:11:19]>> All right.

[00:11:22]So, this is a 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine.

[00:11:33]Awesome.

[00:11:37]And just leaving the witch house. Looks like they're doing some landscape work.

[00:11:42]Must be a lot of work to keep it maintained.

[00:11:53]So, we are now about to enter the most street in the whole of Beverly Hills.

[00:12:01]This is the street that Howard Hughes was coming through in 1946 when he met with an unfortunate accident.

[00:12:10]Howard was an eccentric billionaire known for being an oil tycoon, filmmaker, and amateur aviation enthusiasts.

[00:12:20]He was actually on the maiden voyage of his experimental spycraft when the plane sprung an oil leak and the propeller went into reverse.

[00:12:31]He attempted to crash land in a nearby country club. He missed.

[00:12:37]>> Yeah, he crashed instead. He crashed through four mansions over here >> in this very nice neighborhood.

[00:12:46]>> It was a near fatal crash.

[00:12:49]>> The doctors gave him just a 50/50 chance of even surviving.

[00:12:54]>> Crazy.

[00:12:55]>> He was left with terrible burns, excruciating injuries. He had a lasting opiate addiction from all the pain.

[00:13:05]You'd think this would put him off flying. It didn't, but it did exacerbate his famous OCT.

[00:13:13]>> Toward the end of his life, Howard became more and more eccentric. He cloistered himself in his house, refusing to cut his hair, beard, and nails. He'd wear underpants just once and fling them out. Eventually, he just kind of gave up on clothes.

[00:13:33]Coming up on the left shortly is one of the very nice houses that Howard ruined.

[00:13:41]>> Number 803 right here. It's lovely, right? It wasn't at the time.

[00:13:47]>> Wow.

[00:13:49]>> That's an amazing >> crash landed here.

[00:13:52]>> Yeah. And then he kept going.

[00:13:53]>> Yeah.

[00:13:54]>> He crashed into 805 next door.

[00:13:57]>> Also a very nice house in its own right.

[00:14:00]>> And then he kept going. He couldn't two more over on Witia >> his own personal group.

[00:14:07]>> By the time he died, he'd become so entrenched >> in his addiction and OCD that his weight dropped to 100b.

[00:14:18]>> He was so unckempt, he was barely recognizable. And he had five hypodermic needles snapped off in the flesh of his arms.

[00:14:28]Right here, this very nice house is where mobster Benjamin Bugsy Seagal met his sticky end. So Bugsy was a handsome, charismatic psychopath.

[00:14:43]He played some haters. Assassins crept up this driveway. They shot in through the side window. This was June 25th of 1947.

[00:14:55]Bugsy was in the living room just relaxing for the evening, chatting to a friend, reading the LA Times. He was plucked four times.

[00:15:05]>> Wow.

[00:15:05]>> Twice in the head, twice in the chest.

[00:15:08]One of the head shots hit him so hard his eyeball left his head, flew 15 ft through the air, and landed in the next room. His friend was fine.

[00:15:22]>> They called it a pristine kill. So, if you look over to the left here, um, above the hedge and the ballastrades, you'll see a very, very nice White House where Michael Jackson was staying in 2009.

[00:15:39]>> Michael had had a spending problem. In 2006, despite making all those millions, he'd been forced to sell his beloved Neverland Ranch.

[00:15:53]And in 2009, he announced a series of comeback concerts, Watch Out for the Bush Guys, uh, titled This Is It.

[00:16:04]>> A million tickets sold out. But little did the fans know, >> he was renting this house.

[00:16:09]>> It paramedics came to these gates right here at 12:24 on the afternoon of July 29th, 2009.

[00:16:19]summoned by a 911 call placed from within the mansion just 2 minutes prior.

[00:16:25]I think the rumor is he was renting it for like 100,000.

[00:16:28]>> They were lying. Wait, >> I believe 100,000.

[00:16:31]>> Something like that.

[00:16:32]>> They arrived.

[00:16:34]>> This is a famous gate right here, but you see the ambulance coming out.

[00:16:37]>> And these are the main gates in front here. Very nice. I mean, you can't tell the extent of the house from the street.

[00:16:44]It's huge. So, Michael's no good personal physician. Conrad Murray had closed him with a powerful anesthetic propol.

[00:16:56]This is not an insomnia medication.

[00:16:59]Insomnia being Michael's chief complaints.

[00:17:04]I have been told by people on this very tour that prophe is actually the drug that you need should you be getting a colonoscopy and wish to feel nothing.

[00:17:18]actress, singer, and model back in the 50s. Very much Hollywood royalty, and she got into a terrible altercation in that top left bedroom right there.

[00:17:33]Lheart was on the set of her movie The Lady Takes a Flyer in 1957 when she first began receiving attentions from an admirer who called himself Johnny Steel.

[00:17:48]>> Johnny Steel.

[00:17:49]>> He sent cards and flowers. She was thoroughly intrigued. Little did she know that Johnny Steel was actually an alias for a mobster Johnny Stampinado who was well known to the LA underworld.

[00:18:06]So their relationship swiftly turned stormy and dark.

[00:18:12]At one point Lana said that Stompento drugged her and photographed her in the nude while she was unconscious.

[00:18:22]Sounds like a bit of a red flag.

[00:18:28]Anyway, they kept going out. It was in April of 1958 that Lana's 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane, was watching TV in her upstairs room when she heard her mom and Stumpato in what she said was a terrible argument in which Stumpinato threatened to slash Lana's face with a straight razor to break every bone in her body and then to kill of her mom and her daughter.

[00:19:02]Cheryl, it said, did not hesitate.

[00:19:06]She ran down the stairs, did not stop to call the cops, ran to the kitchen, grabbed a big ass knife, ran back up the stairs, and stabbed Johnny Stomp Bonato >> just once.

[00:19:22]>> Same for mom.

[00:19:24]>> It was a really good stab, >> allegedly.

[00:19:30]So his liver was ruptured and his portal vein and aorta was severed. Wow, what a big pile of rubble. Yeah, he bled out.

[00:19:43]Some say Lana herself killed Johnny Stanato, stabbing him to death as he slept.

[00:19:52]Um, yeah, Stumpinato was jealous, possessive, uh, not a nice guy. Lana may have asked Cheryl to take the fall as a juvenile to shield her career from controversy.

[00:20:10]Interestingly, the knife used to stab Johnny Stanato had bought Milana that very morning. Oh, really? See that? I didn't know.

[00:20:22]>> Yeah, >> that's cool.

[00:20:23]>> A little suspicious.

[00:20:29]>> Yep. She just couldn't wait to try it out.

[00:20:34]Donato was part of a mob scheme where he would befriend wealthy women, obtain nude photos of them, and then blackmail the women using the photos.

[00:20:48]>> Huh. So he had an MMO.

[00:20:50]>> He did.

[00:20:52]Yeah. Some say that Stumpinato had accidentally fallen in love with Lana, then afterwards hung around as some kind of creepy blackmailing stalker, too.

[00:21:07]>> Literal nightmare on Elm Drive. This is Elm Drive.

[00:21:15]And there's going to be a fence around this one. They've been renovating.

[00:21:20]Anybody know it? Going to call it.

[00:21:25]>> Wow.

[00:21:26]>> Nice thought.

[00:21:28]>> So, this is where Kitty and Jose Menendez >> were brutally murdered in uh August 20th of 199. Let's see if the 911 call will play.

[00:21:47]Yes, please.

[00:21:51]>> What's the problem?

[00:21:54]>> What's the problem? What's the problem?

[00:21:59]>> Pardon me?

[00:22:01]>> What? Who? Are they still here?

[00:22:04]>> Yes.

[00:22:04]>> The people.

[00:22:07]>> Were they shocked?

[00:22:10]>> Were they shocked?

[00:22:11]>> You were shocked.

[00:22:25]There's the house.

[00:22:26]>> So, >> Jose and Kitty Mendez died in the rear den and it was a brutal mobstyle execution which initially baffled the cops.

[00:22:39]as the body's being.

[00:22:40]>> Jose was a self-made millionaire from Cuba. He'd made his money in film and the music industry. He'd made some enemies along the way, but the police couldn't quite figure out who'd actually want to kill him. Up until that year, weeks later, it was observed >> that his sons Eric and Lyall were not grieving appropriately.

[00:23:05]Instead, they were spending copious amounts of their parents' fortune.

[00:23:13]Lyall, 21, had bought himself a Porsche, multiple Rolexes, and a restaurant.

[00:23:20]Eric, 18 at the time, had splurged on a Jeep, a $50,000 a year tennis coach. And that was a lot back then. And he'd also financed a rock concert.

[00:23:36]The police put a wire on one of Eric's friends, hoping that he'd confess to a friendly face. He did not. He denied the whole thing.

[00:23:48]However, he did cave the psychological pressure and told his Beverly Hills psychologist about it.

[00:23:58]So, they'd gone shopping for the guns.

[00:24:02]Jose was shot six times.

[00:24:06]The final shot was directly to the back of his head and quite literally blew his brains out.

[00:24:16]Kitty was shot nine times and was still moving. Um, she was attempting to crawl away still while Eric, who'd run out of bullets, went all the way out to the car, reloaded and returned to deliver the final 10th kill shot straight into her face.

[00:24:39]The Mendez brothers were tried twice.

[00:24:43]At first trial, both pled terrible tales of abuse, physical, psychological, and sexual, at the hands of both their parents.

[00:24:54]And it was graphic and gross. The juries, there was one for each brother, became divided as to whether this was a brutal act of greed with the intent to inherit the parents' fortune or whether the brothers had just been driven to temporary insanity after enduring years of abuse.

[00:25:16]At the second trial, the brothers were tried together and the judge disallowed most of the evidence of the abuse.

[00:25:28]At that trial, both were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

[00:25:36]They're still there. There was no response to a pos petition for a retrial in 2018 up until the Netflix monster show reignited interest in the case.

[00:25:52]And last year, uh, judge did re-sentence the brothers again to life in prison 50 years, but this time with the possibility of parole.

[00:26:07]>> So, they're still there. They did have a parole hearing in August. It was quite lengthy. It didn't rule in their favor.

[00:26:18]It's unusual in a murder case that the initial parole hearing would go in the accused's favor.

[00:26:26]>> Yeah.

[00:26:27]>> So, we'll see what happens next.

[00:26:29]Barney's Beeny.

[00:26:32]Barney was has been there since 1920.

[00:26:36]It's been a haven for actors and creatives.

[00:26:41]And during the ' 90s, Quinton Tarantino wrote pop fiction there.

[00:26:51]So yeah, it's had a long and varied history. Um, it was actually a mop hangout during the 50s, but also a cop hangout.

[00:27:01]And apparently you could get anything that was kind of dubious that you could possibly want there. Like if you wanted illegal drugs or an illegal abortion.

[00:27:13]This is where Phoenix called for his brother >> right there.

[00:27:19]>> Right there for the Viper.

[00:27:20]>> They've got a gig, >> but that's like classic. That's the look.

[00:27:26]>> And so that part right there, >> people will like just be standing there.

[00:27:29]>> There's the >> and they like fall asleep standing up.

[00:27:32]>> 1993, >> River Phoenix, King Phoenix's brother.

[00:27:46]So this girlfriend Samantha Matthysse >> So Phoenix >> of Britany Murphy, she's talking here about her house.

[00:27:55]>> Oh wow. He was the kid from Stand by Me.

[00:27:58]>> Mhm.

[00:27:58]>> I did not know that.

[00:28:02]>> Um we're headed up there >> next. Uh this is the house where he lived and died also.

[00:28:11]>> There's one of the buildings that scarf faces.

[00:28:14]>> And what was there? He jumped from an upper floor window.

[00:28:20]>> Landing safely in the pool. Man's indestructible.

[00:28:28]>> At the end of the world.

[00:28:29]>> So funny. It looks way smaller in person.

[00:28:32]>> Keith Richards.

[00:28:33]>> He looks so good.

[00:28:33]>> Talking to the roaches.

[00:28:36]And we've concluded our tour with Graveline Tours. Always amazing. You guys want to follow them on Instagram.

[00:28:42]There is the QR code. They have, I believe, four different tours. This one's Death Becomes Her. They have the Manson tour, Paradise or Gangsters Paradise, and a few other ones. All right, we just finished up with our tour. Figured we get some lunch and we're going to stay on theme with here at El Coyote, the Mexican restaurant.

[00:29:01]Have you you've never been here, right?

[00:29:03]>> Never been here. Always wanted to. I always wanted to. Your first time? I've been here, but it's been many, many years. And it's notoriously known for Sharon Tate's last meal for the Manson family murders, but it's also in the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

[00:29:23]Love the old setting. Yeah. Hopefully it's not too busy. We can get a seat.

[00:29:33]Love when restaurants have all the photographs of actors that have been here with their signatures.

[00:29:38]>> Um, do you need a higher or >> they also got some merch here.

[00:29:50]>> Very old school style restaurant.

[00:29:54]>> All right. My mind is still on the true crime stuff cuz I saw this murder tape, but it's like caution watcher stuff.

[00:30:10]>> Here's a look at the menu. They have some pretty good appetizers and nachos.

[00:30:13]You got a guacamole, which I did order side of guacamole. They automatically give you chips and salsa, which is pretty good. It's like a good pin salsa.

[00:30:21]And this is the one I ordered, the burrito. I ordered it lacosino, which is like a wet burrito. $4 more. I ordered shrimp. A little bit more for the shrimp, but they have steak, pork, and also beef and chicken. And you got the street tacos, right?

[00:30:35]>> Yes.

[00:30:35]>> Yeah, the street tacos. Let me show you what those look like.

[00:30:39]And she got the street tacos. There's a photo there. You're also able to mix them. You wanted shrimp and steak, right? So, you got one shrimp and two steak. And they just brought our drinks and guacamole.

[00:30:51]>> Looks pretty good.

[00:30:53]And >> what did you What drink is that?

[00:30:55]>> I got the strawberry margarita, so it's blended.

[00:30:58]>> It looks really good.

[00:31:01]>> All right, here's my burrito. Laosina.

[00:31:03]Pretty much a wet burrito. Oo, the plate is really hot. Yeah, it's like an enchilada burrito. We'll see if I can finish the whole thing. And then you got your tacos. You got three tacos.

[00:31:14]>> Just enough. You got also salsa or chile verde. And then how's your margarita?

[00:31:19]>> Margarita's really good actually. I like it.

[00:31:21]>> It's good. Yeah. All the food is really good. But I'm going to see if I can finish my burrito.

[00:31:26]Let's dig in. And that is a wrap on today's video here from Elkayote Restaurant. Amazing food. It is getting very crowded. It is Friday night. So glad we came in when we did. Thank you guys for tuning in. I know this was a different type of video, a lot of narration from the tour guide. We were able to stop by quite a few true crime locations around Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and in Hollywood. It was pretty amazing. Thank you guys for sticking with me to the end of this video. I appreciate all of you for commenting. If you guys have any questions about Graveline Tours, they do have an Instagram with all their information, times, and also reservations. If you are interested in taking the tour, I definitely recommend it. It is a really neat thing, very unique, and I definitely want to go back and do more tours. Again, thank you guys for tuning in. I'll see you in the next video. The tale has been told.