Welcome to Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of horrors, hauntings and mysteries. As always, I'm your host, Caitlin Moore. You may be

wondering where I am. Well, a few weeks ago, some of you suggested we buy the Cecil Hotel to serve as the headquarters

for our rogue detecting society.

I thought that was a great idea, but it turns out real estate in Los Angeles is expensive, even when

horrible, unspeakable things have happened there. But I do really like the idea of us all coming together in one place to hear these

stories every week even if that space is just in our imaginations. So picture this, an old three-story Victorian mansion on a hill, the paint

peeling, the wind chimes blowing on the porch, deep scary woods behind it.

It's probably haunted.

I mean, it has to be, since it's our home.

But anyways, that's where I am in the study surrounded by books and candles

dripping wax. It's a dark and weird place, but it's our new home.

And I'm sure we'll find lots of interesting things

left behind by the previous owners.

This felt like the perfect place

to take you on our next journey together through the dark and occasionally haunted history of Hollywood.

You're cordially invited to join me these next four episodes for tales of ghosts,

scandals, curses, and murder. To kick off this series I'm going to tell you two stories today.

One is the story about the Nickerbacher Hotel, which some have called the Cecil Hotel of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

And not just because I can't afford to buy it. hotel of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

And not just because I can't afford to buy it for all of us either.

It's full of old Hollywood tragedy, and the ghosts from that time

are said to still walk the halls. And then I'm going to tell you about the

...