Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour December 10, 2011

L.A. neighborhoods get the historic crimes they deserve in Esotouric's final 2011 bus tours

WHAT: Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic tour company, reveals the criminal history of L.A.'s fascinating neighborhoods with the PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL / EAST SIDE BABYLON crime bus tour weekend and HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE
WHEN: "Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown" tour Saturday, December 3, 12-4pm; "East Side Babylon" tour Sunday, December 4, 12pm-4pm; "Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice" tour Saturday, December 10, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: "Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown" departs from Fair Oaks and Arlington Street, Pasadena, CA 91105; "East Side Babylon" and "Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice" tours depart from Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd. Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
COST: Pasadena Confidential or East Side Babylon tickets $58/person (weekend pass for Pasadena and East Side tours $90/person); Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice tour tickets $58/person.
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- Ask the average person to name a true crime location in Los Angeles and you'll hear about Nicole Brown's Brentwood condo, the Manson Murders scene in the Hollywood Hills or Bugsy Siegel's Beverly Hills death house.

But when the crack researchers of Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic bus tour company, go crime hunting, they throw out the map to the stars homes and cast their eye to less glamorous L.A. neighborhoods that prove to be packed with bizarre crime histories. True crime buffs have already heard the famous stories a dozen times before on cable TV, but the forgotten crimes Esotouric digs up are fresh, fascinating and truly chilling. And to close out their 2011 calendar, Esotouric offers three different tours packed with the weirdest crimes ever committed in three of L.A.'s most iconic communities: the old money suburb of Pasadena, the gritty working class neighborhoods on the East Side of the L.A. River and the city's Historic Core.

TOUR #1:
First up, on Saturday, December 3, it's Esotouric's popular, occasional PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL WITH CRIMEBO THE CLOWN tour, a true crime bus adventure delving deep into the weird and horrible past of one of L.A.'s most exclusive suburbs. Making a special appearance on this tour: it's Crimebo the Crime Clown capering as only Crimebo can. This is Crimebo's first appearance on the crime bus since he was featured in Daily Candy and gained thousands of new fans.
Crime fiends will enjoy a four-hour guided luxury bus tour to the darkest recesses of Pasadena history, with vintage photos and film clips show to set the scene. From celebrated cases like the Robert Kennedy assassination (Sirhan Sirhan was a local Pasadena resident), "Eraserhead" star Jack Nance's strange end, black magician/rocket scientist Jack Parsons' death-by-misadventure and the 1926 Rose Parade grand stand collapse, to fascinating obscurities, the tour's multitude of murders, arsons, kidnappings, robberies, suicides, auto wrecks and oddball happenings provide an alternate history of Pasadena that's as fascinating as it is creepy. Crime Bus passengers will tour the old Millionaire's Row on Orange Grove, boggle at the shocking Sphinx Murder on the steps of the downtown Masonic Hall, thrill to the misadventures of one very poorly-behaved (but beautifully dressed!) chimpanzee and discover why people named Judd and rocket scientists should think twice before moving to Pasadena. They'll also enjoy the offbeat charms of Crimebo the Crime Clown as he leads passengers out onto Suicide Bridge for a personal look down into the gorge that tempted dozens of tormented souls to their demise. Riders on this eye-opening, funny and informative tour will forever see Pasadena in a new light. It is highly recommended for natives and newcomers alike, crime and history buffs and anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.
Tour guide Kim Cooper, who researches and writes all of Esotouric's true crime tours, says, "I believe every neighborhood gets the crimes it deserves, and Pasadena's dark side is suitably rife with rocket scientists driven mad by their work, wealthy eccentrics spoiling their pet chimps and bears, seemingly respectable families misbehaving behind tall hedges and a general air of genteel psychic decay."

TOUR #2:
Then on December 4, a select crew of urban explorers will climb aboard for EAST SIDE BABYLON, the latest addition to Esotouric's popular crime bus tour series. Passengers on this unusual bus adventure will discover fascinating, little-known historic neighborhoods and the grim memories they hold. With crimes spanning the 20th Century, some hideously gruesome, others weird and frankly unbelievable, the tour provides a new way of discovering the city, via crime scenes and oddities that make ordinary houses and intersections seem to vibrate with a mysterious energy. Come visit Boyle Heights, where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez was captured and a mad dad ran amok. Roam the hallowed lawns of Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery and home of some memorable haunts and strange burials. Visit East Los Angeles, where a deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride--and you can get your hair done in a building shaped like a giant tamale. Explore the ghastly streets of Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. Visit Montebello, for scrumptious milk, eggnog and cookies at Broguiere's Farm Fresh Dairy washed down with a horrifying case of child murder. All this, and so much more on EAST SIDE BABYLON, Esotouric's exploration of L.A.'s most horrifying forgotten crimes and offbeat oddities.

Tour #3:
The final tour of the year comes on December 10, with HOTEL HORRORS AND MAIN STREET VICE, a tour meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core.

The HOTEL HORRORS section of the tour is steeped in true crime and oddities, featuring some of the wildest, weirdest, goriest and most memorable happenings in historic hotels like the Alexandria, Hayward, Barclay, King Edward and Cecil. Join the tour and you'll step inside several of these legendary locales, and find out where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez slept, which hotel saw a visit from the Skid Row Slasher, where two traveling chocolate salesmen laughed so hard they fell backwards out a window to their deaths. You'll also explore the fiery curse that repeatedly leveled the St. George Hotel, and hear some light hearted stories to help the blood and gore go down.

The MAIN STREET VICE section is a social history lesson celebrating the ribald, racy, raunchy old promenade where the better people simply did not travel, but kicks were had by all who did. Burlesque babes and dirty picture parlors, mummified western outlaws and old time tattoo parlors, wax museums and pawn brokers, "professors" offering sex lectures and magazine peddlers with nudie Marilyn Monroe calendars under the counter, sophisticated steak houses and nickel donut dives -- these were the pleasures and the people to be found along Main during the first half of the 20th century, a street that every Angeleno knew offered more (yet less) of what could be seen anywhere else. We'll visit the scenes of some more unforgettable debaucheries and share stories of crime, smut, passion and commerce.

Climb aboard for a time travel journey back to the downtown that's not there anymore, and the surprising number of gems that survive.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sun Nov 27 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Dec 3 – Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown (weekend pass available)
Sun Dec 4 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat Dec 10 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sun Dec 25 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Jan 7 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Jan 21 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
Sat Jan 28 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Mon Jan 23 - The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun Jan 29 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Feb 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend pass available)
Sun Feb 5 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South Los Angeles (weekend pass available)
Sat Feb 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Feb 26 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 3 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 10 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)

Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper, Joan Renner and Michael "Crimebo the Clown" Perrick are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Official Website: http://www.esotouric.com