The Night Stalker Summer: Richard Ramirez and the 1985 Terror That Reshaped LA
How Richard Ramirez's 1985 home-invasion spree gripped Los Angeles, how a shoe print and one fingerprint broke the case, and what the record shows.
Read more →Cold Cases
Los Angeles' most infamous unsolved murders and mysterious deaths — cases that passed through the Los Angeles Coroner's Office and remain open to this day.
"A Toxic Love Story" and the 88 Days: What Netflix Gets Right About a Framing
Michelle Hadley spent 88 days in an Orange County jail for a crime that never happened. Riley B. on why the documentary's structure matters — and the appeal it triggered.
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Three Manson Documentaries, One Actually New: Making Manson, Chaos, and My Grandfather Charles Manson
Only one of the three most-discussed Manson documentaries is a 2026 release. Riley B. on what each one claims, what the record supports, and why the tapes matter most.
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"The Crash": What Netflix's Mackenzie Shirilla Documentary Is Actually Arguing
Netflix's The Crash landed in May 2026 and split critics down the middle. Riley B. walks through the case record, the evidence that convicted her, and why the reviews disagree.
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Inside LA's Transnational Organized Crime Takedown: What the Targeted-Killing Charges Actually Allege
Operation Hard Ball charged 37 people across three India-based syndicates. Riley B. breaks down what the RICO indictments actually allege — and what they don't.
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"Black Dahlia" by William J. Mann: Does the 2026 Book Finally Solve It?
William J. Mann spent five years in the archives and came out with a name. Riley B. reads the book and interrogates the evidence — carefully.
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The Hollywood Walk of Fame Killing: How a Daylight Attack Became a Murder Case
How a bus stop confrontation on Hollywood Boulevard turned into a fatal stabbing — and a murder case that took investigators eight days to fully close.
Read more →The Black Dahlia: LA's Most Infamous Unsolved Murder
The 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short remains the most notorious unsolved case in Los Angeles history. How the Los Angeles Coroner's Office handled the case that launched a thousand theories.
Read more →Body Notes: The Coroner's Notepad That Wrote Itself
The Los Angeles Coroner's 'Body Notes' notepad turned the language of autopsy reports into an office supply — and became a cult favorite.
Read more →The Coroner's Tote Bag: Carrying Death to the Farmer's Market
A cotton tote bag stamped with the Los Angeles Coroner's seal became an unlikely fashion statement on the streets of Los Angeles.
Read more →The Murder of William Desmond Taylor: Hollywood's First Scandal
In 1922, one of Hollywood's top directors was found shot dead in his bungalow. The investigation exposed secrets that rocked the film industry — and the case was never solved.
Read more →Indy the German Shepherd: The Coroner's Cadaver Dog
The Los Angeles Coroner's gift shop sold a plush German Shepherd named Indy — modeled after the real cadaver dogs that helped recover remains across Los Angeles.
Read more →The Death of Thelma Todd: Murder, Suicide, or Accident?
When the 'Ice Cream Blonde' was found dead in her car in 1935, the coroner ruled carbon monoxide poisoning. But was it really an accident? The evidence tells a more sinister story.
Read more →The Crime Scene Towel: Do Not Cross This Beach
The Los Angeles Coroner's crime scene towel turned yellow tape into a beach accessory — and became one of the gift shop's most popular items.
Read more →The Notorious B.I.G.: Drive-By in the City of Angels
On March 9, 1997, Christopher Wallace was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Coroner confirmed the cause of death, but the killer has never been identified.
Read more →The Body Outline Beach Towel: How the Coroner's #1 Bestseller Was Born
A white beach towel with a body outline became the Los Angeles Coroner's most iconic product — and an unlikely symbol of Los Angeles itself.
Read more →Marilyn Monroe: The Coroner's Verdict That Nobody Believed
When Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood home on August 5, 1962, the Los Angeles Coroner ruled it a probable suicide. Sixty years later, the questions haven't stopped.
Read more →George Reeves: Did Superman Really Kill Himself?
The man who played Superman was found dead with a gunshot wound in 1959. The coroner ruled suicide, but the evidence left room for doubt — and Hollywood never stopped whispering.
Read more →Natalie Wood: The Drowning That Was Ruled an Accident — Then Wasn't
In 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned off Catalina Island. The coroner called it an accident. Thirty years later, the case was reopened and the ruling changed.
Read more →Robert F. Kennedy: The Assassination the Coroner Got Right
When RFK was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968, the Los Angeles Coroner's autopsy was meticulous. The ballistic evidence, however, raised questions that persist to this day.
Read more →The Los Angeles Coroner: How a Morgue Became the Most Famous Death Office in America
No coroner's office in America has touched more famous deaths, generated more controversy, or sold more beach towels than the Los Angeles Coroner. Here's how it happened.
Read more →After the Fire: How the LA Coroner Recovers and Identifies Wildfire Victims
When wildfires sweep through Los Angeles County, the coroner's office faces its most difficult identification challenge — recovering and naming the dead from scenes where everything has been reduced to ash.
Read more →Epidemics of the Dead: The LA Coroner During the AIDS Crisis and Crack Epidemic
The AIDS crisis and crack epidemic hit Los Angeles simultaneously in the 1980s — and the coroner's office was the institution that counted the dead when no one else wanted to.
Read more →The Unclaimed Dead: Los Angeles and the Largest Potter's Field in America
Los Angeles County buries more unclaimed dead than almost any jurisdiction in the country — a grim intersection of homelessness, poverty, and isolation in America's second-largest city.
Read more →Thomas Noguchi: The Full Story of LA's Coroner to the Stars
Thomas Noguchi autopsied Marilyn Monroe, Robert Kennedy, and Sharon Tate — but his legacy extends far beyond celebrity cases to forensic innovations that changed how America investigates death.
Read more →The Building on Mission Road: How a Morgue Became a Landmark
The Los Angeles Coroner's Office on North Mission Road was never meant to be a tourist attraction — but its distinctive architecture and macabre gift shop made it one of the most recognizable buildings in Los Angeles.
Read more →Coroner vs. Medical Examiner: Why It Matters How We Investigate Death
Elected coroner or appointed medical examiner? The distinction shapes how death investigations are conducted — and Los Angeles has been at the center of this debate for decades.
Read more →Open Files: Why Autopsy Reports Are Public Record in California
California is one of the few states where autopsy reports are public record — a transparency policy that has fueled true-crime research, journalism, and controversy for decades.
Read more →When Disaster Strikes: The LA Coroner and Mass Casualty Events
Earthquakes, wildfires, plane crashes, and mass shootings — the Los Angeles Coroner's Office has been tested by some of the worst mass casualty events in American history.
Read more →Nobody Came: The Crisis of Unclaimed Remains in Los Angeles
Every year, the Los Angeles Coroner's Office handles over a thousand bodies that nobody claims — a crisis that reveals the isolation and anonymity hidden beneath the surface of America's second-largest city.
Read more →First on Scene: The Coroner's Investigators Who Go Where Death Happens
Before the autopsy, before the toxicology, the LA Coroner's investigators arrive at the scene — apartments, alleys, freeways, and hillsides — to begin piecing together how someone died.
Read more →Naming the Unknown: How the LA Coroner Identifies the Dead
DNA, dental records, fingerprints, and forensic anthropology — the Los Angeles Coroner's Office uses every available tool to identify remains that arrive without a name.
Read more →Blood Don't Lie: Inside the LA Coroner's Toxicology Lab
The Los Angeles Coroner's toxicology laboratory analyzes blood, tissue, and fluid samples from thousands of death investigations each year — the silent science behind every suspicious death.
Read more →Cause and Manner: How the LA Coroner Determines Why People Die
Death certificates issued by the Los Angeles Coroner's Office carry enormous legal weight. The distinction between cause and manner of death can determine whether someone goes to prison.
Read more →Nineteen Thousand Autopsies a Year: Inside the LA Coroner's Caseload
The Los Angeles Coroner's Office handles roughly 19,000 death investigations annually — making it one of the busiest forensic operations in the Western Hemisphere.
Read more →How to Read an LA County Autopsy Report
A practical guide to how to read an autopsy report from LA County — cause vs. manner, deferred rulings, toxicology levels, and the mistakes readers make.
Read more →Fentanyl and the Morgue: What LA County Overdose Death Data Reveals
LA County overdose death data shows how fentanyl reshaped death investigation — surging caseloads, toxicology backlogs, and the first hopeful signs of a turn.
Read more →LA County Buries Its Unclaimed Dead: The 2024 Ceremony
This week's LA County unclaimed dead ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery will lay to rest 1,865 people, continuing a tradition of dignity that dates to 1896.
Read more →Dark Tourism in Los Angeles: From the Cecil Hotel to Mission Road
A Halloween-season guide to Los Angeles dark tourism — the Cecil Hotel, Hollywood Forever, the Museum of Death, and the coroner's Mission Road legacy.
Read more →Marilyn at 62: Why Her 'Probable Suicide' Ruling Never Settled Anything
Sixty-two years on, Marilyn Monroe's cause of death is settled science — yet the 'probable suicide' ruling never settled the public mind. Here's why.
Read more →Investigative Genetic Genealogy Is Coming for LA's Cold Cases
How investigative genetic genealogy is solving cold cases in Los Angeles — from the Golden State Killer arrest to the coroner's unidentified dead.
Read more →77 Years of the Black Dahlia: Why January 15 Still Owns Los Angeles
On the Black Dahlia anniversary, Los Angeles remembers Elizabeth Short again. Why a 1947 unsolved murder still commands the city's imagination, 77 years on.
Read more →Skeletons in the Closet: How the LA Coroner Ran America's Strangest Gift Shop
The LA coroner gift shop sold body-outline beach towels and toe-tag keychains for a quarter century. The strange, charming story of Skeletons in the Closet.
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