Waking up the morning of Tuesday April 1st, 2014; I had no idea how deeply fulfilling the day would turn out to be. I was in San Diego with my wife, and as she was busy all day at an Art Teacher’s Convention downtown; I thought I’d head up to LA to make yet another attempt at the Lido.
I lived at the Lido Apartments for 3 years with my mom and two sisters, starting back in 1979. Read more
Our slow ejection from the State of California was gradual at first, predicated on a string of unlucky events. My mom’s boss had embezzled from the company she worked for and so everyone there lost their jobs. Due to subsequent mounting bills, my family was kicked out of the Lido (my own personal sanctuary) in December of 1981. I’d moved around a lot as a kid, but the two and a half years I spent at the Lido had made me feel safe and secure. If I was a fool for feeling that way, then this was my fool’s paradise.
Though I supposed that not only Victor Kilian; but also the several residents assaulted inside and outside of the fortress walls; and even the unnamed guy who kept starting fires in the Lido lobby would not have agreed with me.
The actor Victor Kilian was bludgeoned to death at the Lido Apartments in Hollywood in 1979, a few weeks before I moved in. Around that time and in that area, though I certainly wasn’t aware of it, there was apparently a lot of dying going on. A few miles west of my place, and just a couple of years before, Sal Mineo had been stabbed to death. At the time of Victor’s death, a guy named Lionel Williams was on trial for the Mineo killing, he would shortly thereafter be convicted.
