Welcome to Spooky LA, a series where we explore the scares and spirits of Los Angeles.

Today’s story takes us through the charming neighborhood of Los Feliz. Known for its charming Spanish-style homes, restaurants, and shops lining Vermont and Hillhurst avenues, this Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood has a dark history filled with ghosts, murder, and rumors of a curse.

Historical writer Hadley Meares guides us through the haunting of Los Feliz.

Wait, there’s a curse in Los Feliz?

The ghostly history of Los Feliz dates back to the 1860s. Meares said the tale of the curse began with Los Angeles’s first historian, Horace Bell, who told the story of the curse of Los Feliz.

It began in 1863, during the smallpox epidemic. At the time, a hilly section of Los Feliz, then called Rancho Los Feliz, was owned by bachelor Don Antonio Feliz. He had no children, but he had a niece named Petranilla who he loved very much.

The story goes that in his will, Petranilla was to inherit Rancho Los Feliz. But when smallpox struck the ranch, Don Antonio Feliz sent Petranilla to Los Angeles to escape the disease. Upon his return, a group of lawyers had convinced Antonio to sell them the land and leave Petranilla out of his will.

Believing she had been cheated out of her inheritance, as the story goes, she placed a curse on Los Feliz.

“She said, “I see a great flood wreaking destruction. I see the great oaks withering in tongues of flame. The wrath of heaven and the vengeance of hell shall fall upon this place,’” Meares said.

It turns out that Petranilla wasn’t deprived of her inheritance after all.

“In reality, the land was purchased fairly and equitably, and Petranilla lived to the happy age of 92. But it’s a great story.” Meares said.

And whether the curse is true or not, one man had bad luck on the land: future owner Griffith J. Griffith.

Griffith Park Ghost Stories

Many believe that Griffith Park is haunted by several spirits, including the spirit of Griffith J. Griffith. He shot his wife in the face in the early 1900s. When he owned the land, a giant flood occurred and “the workers saw both Don Antonio and the ghost of Petranilla riding the waves of the ‘flood, mocking the misfortune of the earth,’ Meares said.

After having no luck with farming, Griffith finally deeded the town land in 1896 to turn it into what is now known as Griffith Park.

“It is said that at the time of signing his handover of the lands to the city, Don Antonio appeared at a party celebrating this and told them that he had invited all his sub-demons to join all these rich people to celebrating that his land was now being stolen again by the city,” Meares said.

Some have reported seeing Walt Disney’s spirit lurking around the park’s carousel, which he rode with his family. And in Beachwood Canyon, the ghost of British actress Peg Entwistle is said to haunt the area. She jumped from the Hollywood sign to her death in 1932 and it is said that you can smell her gardenia perfume around the sign.

The Bianca House

The sinister side of Los Feliz’s history also dates back to the Manson Family murders in the late 1960s.

After the gruesome murders of actress Sharon Tate and her friends on Cielo Drive in Benedict Canyon, Manson Family followers found their next victims at a large Spanish-style home on Waverley Drive owned by Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. The husband and wife were found dead, stabbed multiple times.

As horrific as this story was, their murders marked a turning point in the investigation into the Manson Family murders, as people began to realize that a group of serial killers were on the loose.

Afraid ? I know we are. That’s all for today’s spooky story from Los Feliz. You can read more ghost stories about Los Feliz by Hadley Meares here.