Readers of the most celebrated Los Angeles crime novels ever published as well as followers of classic murder cases of the 1940s and 1950s now have a chance to experience those gory thrills in a tourist setting.
Guided bus tours by Esotouric, a company dedicated to L.A, “noir,” treat pulp fiction aficionados to reasonably priced adventures into the gritty underbelly of Southern California throughout the year.
Its calendar includes these crime-themed trips:
- Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles – Travel the mean streets and dangerous bungalows that were inhabited by the mystery writer’s anti-hero, detective Philip Marlowe and the villains he pursued “in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs. The stops include The Los Angeles Athletic Club, Musso & Frank, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates,” and more, plus “a Chandler-themed gelato stop at East Hollywood cult favorite Scoops," says the online description.
- Pasadena Confidential – “Meet assassins and oddballs, kidnappers and slashers, Satanists and all manner of maniac” associated with the deceptively sunny suburb, including “celebrated cases like the RFK assassination (with a visit to Sirhan Sirhan's folks' house), Eraserhead star Jack Nance's strange end, black magician/rocket scientist Jack Parsons' death-by-misadventure and the 1926 Rose Parade grand stand collapse.
- The Real Black Dahlia – Elizabeth Short was the victim in LA’s most famous unsolved murder in 1947 and this tour retraces its key locales “from the human hustle of Main Street to the serene lobby of the Biltmore (the second-to-last place she was seen alive), to the newspaper offices and the Greyhound station where she checked her bags, and concludes at the site where her bisected body was found in Leimert Park.”
- "Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA" – Celebrating the life, work and passions (women, booze, rotten jobs) of the underground poet, novelist and screenwriter.
Tickets can be ordered online until the morning of the tour. Last-minute bookings can be made by phone when seats are available. Typically, the tours begin at noon, last about four hours and cost $58 per person.
Sources
- Esotouric - "Bus Adventures into the secret heart of Los Angeles" website.
Grace Lichtenstein - I prefer "seasoned" to "senior" but whatever term you use, I have been an outdoor adventurer for most of my adult years. I am a cycling ...
