A few years back, I was in Los Angeles for a family reunion. In Universal City, I was approached by a tourist asking for directions to Brentwood, which I was able to provide, surprisingly. When I asked what he was looking for, he responded, 'the house where O.J. Simpson killed his wife'. So yes, you have those, too: tourists just in town for the chapter representing its gory past. I found New York and Los Angeles are probably the creepiest places for visiting famous creepy sites.
1. West 72nd Street and 5th Avenue - The Dakota Building
On December 8, 1980 John Lennon was gunned down by Mark David Chapman right as he was walking through the entry way on West 72nd. This place is particularly haunting for me, and it's just as sad, being that John Lennon had embraced NYC wholeheartedly and refused to have any extra security. Away from the entrance toward the park, he had given his assassin an autograph on a copy of the recently released comeback album 'Double Fantasy'... only hours before returning to the same spot, the same guy, and, unfortunately, a different result. In nearby Central Park, Strawberry Fields was dedicated to him by his widow, Yoho Ono.
2. OJ murder site - 879 S Bundy Drive (formerly 875), Brentwood, Los Angeles
This is one of the easiest sites to find. Nowadays, you could walk up to the place, and there is no evidence whatsoever that one of the grisliest murders in American history took place there. Yet right there, in front of #879, in June 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson's body was found, savagely murdered, a short distance away from Ron Goldman, supposedly her boyfriend at the time. We all know what happened next: the high speed police chase down the 405 interstate, OJ arrested, OJ acquitted, people (mostly white) crying bloody murder, the victims' families crying wee wee wee all the way home…and the tabloids having a field day with the story ever since. A gift that keeps on giving for them.
3. Ford's Theater, Washington, DC - 511 10th Street, close to the Chinatown stop.
Imagine horse carriages clattering on cobblestone roads, ladies in their evening gowns and gentlemen in their top hats walking through 1865 Washington, DC. Next, imagine a lone man limping outside of Ford's Theater looking for a horse after gunning down Abraham Lincoln in his box inside the theater. The building still conveys that old world aura about it, so you will stop and watch a little before it dawns on you what exactly happened there. Ford's Theater is very central, an easy walk or metro ride from any place in DC.
4. Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas - the site of Kennedy's assassination
That was an easy one, I suppose. Being that the assassination is still shrouded in mystery, it makes for an even more intriguing visit. People see the glassed off area and window from where Lee Harvey Oswald (supposedly) pulled the trigger at the Schoolbook Depository and the grassy slope at street level, and before you know it dozens of tourists become criminal investigators. Some natives or a tour guide will say, 'that's where JFK was, right here with the first shot, here he was hit with the second shot, etc.' Politics aside, I would have to say that was one heck of a shot, if indeed it was Oswald!
5. Boston Marathon Bombings near Copley Square - Boston, MA
I had been to this place long before it happened, but it doesn't make it any less haunting. In 2003, I was at the finish line on Boylston Street, cheering on runners during a visit there. Ten years later, people just like me were blown to bits by a couple of pressure cooker bombs (allegedly) planted by the Tsarnaev brothers.
6. World Trade Center - New York, NY
I had visited the twin towers often as a tourist before 9/11, and even took an elevator to the observation deck of the south tower several times. Later in 2002, when I moved to NYC, I would be a tour guide for many visitors wishing to see the footprint. Predictably, it was all rubble. The first thing people will see is that this was a huge site, that the disaster they could only watch on TV could become a little more visual once they saw the dimensions of the buildings, not to mention the other WTC sites surrounding the twin towers.
7. Columbine High School, Columbine, Jefferson County, Colorado I remember visiting Columbine a few years before it happened. Back then, I was thinking, 'What a sweet and peaceful little community'. Call it the calm before the storm, I guess, because in 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold would take out a dozen students and a teacher during a bloody rampage that would end with their own suicides. This is the only place on the list I haven't visited physically. I can only recall Columbine itself, a place of apparent suburban bliss. Famous last words.
8. Spahn Ranch, Santa Susanna Mountains, near Chatsworth, CA - The Manson Family
This might easily rank as the creepiest site on the list. I have dear relatives living in nearby Chatsworth, where we meet each year for a family reunion, so reaching the former site on the Old Santa Susanna Pass Road is easy. Nowadays, there's nothing left of the ranch that supposedly burned down years ago. It's rocky and wooded, just the right place for a hideout, especially should a police raid occur. This was the home to Charlie Manson and his family during the Tate-La Bianca murders in the summer of 1969. I went to Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon as well (the house where Sharon Tate and five others were butchered), although that house was torn down years ago, the address changed, and access to the place became virtually impossible.
9. 522 West San Ysidro Blvd., San Ysidro, CA - the McDonald's Massacre: you know this place had to be on there. James Huberty gunned down 21 McDonald's customers in cold blood in 1984. The place since has been razed, and there is now a memorial in its place.
10. Tombstone, AZ - I had to make a visit here, being a fan of old wild west legend. This is the place where Wyatt Earp and his brothers pitched their tents for a considerable time, culminating in the shootout at the OK Corral, which is still marked today in a town largely preserved for its historic past.
And now our next assignment: the winner is...TANZANIA! YES! I can't wait to report from there.
