I’ve covered a lot of eerie, creepy, spooky, and downright horrible topics on this blog. But nothing manages to creep me out quite like the Los Feliz Murder Mansion does.
The house is a Spanish Revival-style mansion built in the 1920s which holds many bedrooms, quarters, and even a ballroom. It was once considered elegant. It was an enviable house. Anyone who was anyone wanted to own it, to live in it, to luxuriate in it. And that honour went to Harold Perelson, who purchased the Los Feliz home in the early 1950s for his prosperous family.
Harold Perelson was a man of means. He was a doctor as well as a professor of cardiology, and he was often invited to speak at conferences. He and his wife, Lillian, were a picture perfect American family, and their three children, Judye, Joel, and Debby wanted for nothing.
And then things started to change. Harold had a brilliant idea that would make his family all the more prosperous. Harold had designed a new type of syringe. It would inject substances from glass vials. In turn, the injection would then be safer for the patient and less prone to contamination.
Harold’s business partner, Edward Shustack, had offered to help Harold make his syringe market-ready. But that was a big, fat lie. Shustack took Harold’s design and tried to cut him out of the deal. Harold was struck dumb. He’d been betrayed by a man he’d trusted for over a decade. Harold did what he had to do. He took Shustack to court.
For two years, Harold fought for his design, spending two years in legal disputes and demanding $100,000 in damages.
The case, as well as other financial investments, ate up the family fortune. They were left nearly destitute. To add insult to injury, Harold won his case, but was only awarded $24,000 in damages.
Following the court case from hell, near-tragedy struck the Perelson family. The eldest daughter, Judye, was driving with her siblings in the car when they got into an accident. Once again, Harold went to court in order to seek damages.
This case was quicker, but more brutal. Harold only received a fraction of the $50,000 he asked for – barely enough to cover the medical bills.
After years of setbacks and financial ruin, Harold’s health began to deteriorate. He was under so much stress that be had a number of coronaries. However, it was later discovered that the coronaries were actually the result of multiple failed suicide attempts on Harold’s part.
Harold Perelson was a ruined man who’d let down his family. And he didn’t know what to do.
On December 6th, 1959, Harold Perelson woke up between 4:30 and 5:00 AM. He fetched a ball-peen hammer from the main floor of the house, and then went back upstairs to the master bedroom. Harold approached the side of bed on which Lillian slept peacefully. Then he struck her in the head with the hammer. Harold believed his wife to be dead.
Harold then went to tend to his children. He went to Judye’s room first. He approached her, swung the hammer, and just barely missed. While the blow connected, it didn’t incapacitate Judye. She woke up in terror. She screamed for her father to stop. But he didn’t. “Lay still,” Harold told her. “Keep quiet.”
Judye’s screams woke her siblings, who went to investigate. What they found was their father, covered in blood. “This is a nightmare,” he said. “Go back to sleep.”
While distracted by the two younger children, Judye managed to escape her father. She ran out of the house, into the street, screaming at him not to kill her, and banged on the neighbour’s door for help.
A neighbour, Marshall Ross, went to investigate while another called the authorities. Joel and Debby were on the main floor, confused, and gestured upstairs. Marshall found Harold just up the stairs, covered in blood. When he tried to confront him, Harold told him to leave him alone and go away. Marshall left.
Harold then went back to the master bedroom, mixed Nembutal, which is a very powerful barbiturate, with water and swallowed 31 tranquilizer pills. He then laid down next to his wife, and quietly fell asleep. The hammer was still in his hand.
LAPD arrived to the Los Feliz house around 5:15 AM. Harold and Lillian didn’t make it, while Judye was treated for her injuries. Joel and Debby were uninjured.
The authorities later discovered that Lillian hadn’t perished from her husband’s attack. The official cause of death was asphyxiation – Lillian had drowned in her own blood.
The Perelson children were taken in by relatives following the attack. None of them have made comments to the media since. And they wish to remain unfound – for good reason.
Since December 6th, 1959, the house has remained untouched.
In 1960, Emily and Julian Enriquez bought the house. But they didn’t renovate, or remove any of the furnishings or belongings inside. Neighbours stated that the couple used the house for storage – but they never stayed overnight.
Their son, Rudy, inherited the house from his parents. Like them, he never stayed, nor renovated, nor did much with it.
Since the brutal attack in 1959, the Los Feliz Murder Mansion has stood untouched. Until it was sold in 2016. As of 2019, it’s on the market again.
No one is quite sure what motivated Harold Perelson to attempt to annihilate his family. Maybe it was the financial ruin. Maybe it was his sense of loss of control. Maybe it was something else entirely. Thankfully, he did not succeed.
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Sources:
Los Feliz Murder Mansion – Atlas Obscura
Los Feliz Murder House – Chris Mahon – The Lineup
The Los Feliz Murder Mansion – Colleen Conroy – Ranker
The Sinister Story Behind the Los Feliz Murder House – Alyse Wax – The 13th Floor