The Los Feliz Murder House, a landmark for L.A.-based true-crime aficionados, is in escrow yet again! For those who don’t follow such things, the property is one of the city’s most notorious homicide sites, ranking up there with Nicole Brown Simpson’s Brentwood condo and the patch of grass in Leimert Park where the Black Dahlia’s dismembered body was found. Vice deemed the stately residence the “crown jewel of Southern California murder lore,” and that’s not hyperbole. Copious articles have been written about the Spanish Revival estate, it was a regular stop on the Dearly Departed Tour until neighbors got irritated with the constant attention and it is a popular pilgrimage for those obsessed with all things macabre. A podcast series that deep-dives into the history of the property and its various owners was also just released this past May. Titled The Los Feliz Murder Mansion, it can be listened to via all podcast platforms, as well as on its official website which features myriad photographs, legal documents and footage concerning the home and its bizarre past.
I first learned of the infamous dwelling, the murder-suicide that took place there, and the incredibly strange state the house remained in for the next sixty years from a friend late one night in 2011. I was so intrigued, I ran right out to see it in person bright and early the next morning! Perched atop a steep hill, the three-story home seems to loom over the road like a real-life haunted house, almost as if architect Harry E. Werner could foresee its bloody future when he designed it in 1925.
Situated on a quiet, leafy cul-de-sac in the exclusive Los Feliz Hills neighborhood, the sprawling residence might seem an unexpected place for a grizzly near-familicide to occur. But that is exactly what happened in the early morning hours of December 6th, 1959, when Dr. Harold Perelson, a successful cardiologist and USC School of Medicine professor, picked up a ball-peen hammer and set about on a murderous spree. The doctor first took the tool to his wife’s head, killing her with one blow at approximately 4:30 a.m. while she slept in the master suite. He then ventured into the room of his eldest daughter, Judye, and struck her in the head with the same hammer. The blow wasn’t fatal, though, and instead awakened the 18-year-old, who began screaming. The noise in turn woke the Perelsons’ youngest child, Debbie (11), causing her to run to Judye’s room to investigate the wails. In the confusion, Judye managed to escape from her father and the house and raced to the home of a neighbor, Marshall Ross, who called the police.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake While Judye stayed behind, Marshall headed up to the Perelson residence, where he found Debbie and her older brother, Joel (13), whom he promptly sent outside. Venturing upstairs, he came upon Harold, dripping with blood, walking around the second floor in a “very agitated state,” according to a United Press article that ran in several papers the following day. After telling Marshall to return home, Harold then entered a bathroom, swallowed a cocktail of pills, and laid down on the floor next to Judye’s bed, where he passed away minutes later. It was a heinous scene, but fortunately, all three children were spared, thanks in large part to Judye’s screams. Though the teenager was hospitalized, she sustained no life-threatening injuries.
A motive for the crime was never discovered though the Perelsons were said to be having financial difficulties. And, according to journalist Jeff Maysh’s extensive “Medium” article on the subject, there had been several suicide attempts by Harold leading up to the killings. But whatever actually drove Dr. Perelson to murder is a secret he took to the grave. While hardly the only instance of a familicide occurring shortly before Christmas in the L.A. area, what makes this particular case so compelling is what happened afterward.
Shortly after the killings, the family’s home was sold via probate auction to Emily and Julian Enriquez, who lived in Lincoln Heights. While the couple visited the mansion on occasion, and even stored some of their possessions there, for reasons that remain unclear, they never inhabited the property, nor did they ever move the Perelsons’ belongings out! The house simply sat, frozen in time, collecting dust on its midcentury furnishings.
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Image Credit: Instagram. Stassi Schroeder Julian passed away first and then Emily, in 1994, at which time their son, Rudy, inherited the house. Confounding neighbors and followers of the case alike, he, too, left it uninhabited and untouched, a virtual time capsule from that bloody night back in 1959! We’re talking cans of food in the pantry, magazines stacked on the living room coffee table, a 1950s television set propped against a wall, closets teeming with clothes, and – most macabre of all – Christmas wrapping and ribbons strewn about a banquette! Even Judye’s floral-themed light plate remained on the switch in her bedroom.
There is quite a bit of mystery surrounding the items themselves. The Perelsons were, in fact, Jewish, so the holiday paper is a bit of an anomaly, as are some of the vintage magazines and canned goods, which date to the 1960s after the murder-suicide took place. Rudy did tell the “Los Angeles Times” in 2009 that he used the home as storage, so some of the items undoubtedly belonged to him or his parents. But that doesn’t answer the question of why food, toys, furniture, and other ephemera dating back five-plus decades were left on the premises to age like some sort of live-action diorama or why the house remained seemingly intact from the night of the murders, as if a family had been suddenly interrupted one evening and left in a hurry, never to return. Like Harold 56 years before him, Rudy took the answers to those questions to the grave when he passed away in 2015, leaving behind a mystery that has baffled and scintillated all who learn of it.
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Image Credit: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties Because Rudy had no heirs, Murder Mansion was put up for sale the following year. Real estate agents were tasked with clearing out the place to prepare it for purchase. It finally hit the market in March 2016, the first time in over 60 years and completely stripped of its historic artifacts, with a $2.75 million asking price.
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Image Credit: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties Even after decades of neglect and deterioration, the home’s beauty still shone through and it was quickly picked up by attorney Lisa Bloom and her husband, Braden Pollock, in June 2016 for $2,289,500. Bloom wasn’t at all put off by the property’s dark history, telling NBC Los Angeles, “I don’t really believe in ghosts and spooky spirits. The house didn’t do anything wrong. The house is innocent.” The couple promptly began an extensive remodel, taking the interior of the 5-bedroom, 4-bath, 5,050-square-foot pad down to the studs, though the exterior was left largely intact.
Then in May 2019, completely out of the blue, the property once again was listed for sale, shocking those following the story. Originally priced at $3.5 million, it finally entered escrow last Friday after a hefty price cut brought the price down to $2.5 million.
It was actually the specter of red tape that sent Bloom and Pollock packing. She explained, “After three years of efforts, we gave up. Since we’d be improving it more than 50%, we’d have to bring the whole property up to code, which means tearing down the house and regrading the hills it’s on. The property would be perfect for someone who wants a 5,000 square foot gutted house to fix up as they’d like, or for a developer ready to tear it down, regrade the hill and build the house of their dreams.”
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Image Credit: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties -
Image Credit: Realtor.com The Los Feliz Murder House is currently just a shell, with many of the original elements, like the third-floor ballroom’s Art Deco-style bar, removed without a trace.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Some original detailing does remain, though, like the mirrored fireplace in the step-down living room.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com And a guest room bathtub.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The home’s staircase, which zig-zags up the front of the house, is another holdover.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Cutting a sharp diagonal line that’s visible across a tall arched window on the front façade, the staircase is definitely one of the property’s creepiest elements.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com For those familiar with the place, the Los Feliz Murder House remains strangely recognizable, even stripped down to its bare bones.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Despite its sordid history, it will be a true pity if this one winds up a tear-down! Whether it remains standing or not, though, the estate and the events of December 6th, 1959 will forever remain a shadow over that quiet Los Feliz Hills cul de sac.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The so-called Los Feliz Murder House is located at 2475 Glendower Place in Los Feliz. Several famous homes, quite a few of the Haunted Hollywood variety, are located on the adjacent Glendower Avenue, including the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House from “House on Haunted Hill” at 2607 Glendower Ave., Dolly Green’s (Beverly D’Angelo) house from “Eye for an Eye” at 2757 Glendower Ave., the Doppelganger mansion at 2421 Glendower Ave., and Donna Martin’s (Tori Spelling) residence from the first season of “Beverly Hills, 90210” at 2405 Glendower Ave. The Griswold family home from “National Lampoon’s Vacation” is around the corner at 2310 North Vermont Avenue. Disclaimer: Please remember these are all private homes. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the properties in any way.