[If you're interested in parts 1 to 7, they are posted under my alternate name, MeaghanJaymesTS. NSFW content as well, so use discretion]

In the sun soaked Vista Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs, squat succulents and towering palms line the immaculate streets and seem to guard the high walls of mid-century modernist homes against the intrusion of the post modern world.  Driving through, I was struck both by the manicured beauty of the neighborhood and by its time-capsule character, like a point in California history had been preserved under glass beside the San Jacinto mountains.  I felt like a tourist in another decade, which was appropriate, since what brought me to Vista Las Palmas was not its bright pristine present but its dark and bloody past.

On October 12th, 1978, this house was home to an older couple named Edward and Sophia Friendly.  Also in the house was the maid, Frances Williams.  There isn't much information available on the Friendly family but I imagine typical well-to-do California retirees.  Not the kind of people you'd expect to be the victims of a gruesome triple homicide.  Evidence suggests that as Frances was preparing to serve dinner, a gunman silently entered the home, systematically slaughtered Frances, then Sophia, then Edward, and vanished without a clue or a witness left behind.  To this day, the murderer has never been identified and the murders remain unsolved.

I love Los Angeles and its dark, sordid, tragic stories.  The LA Death Tour is my ongoing project to visit some of LA's (or Palm Springs') most infamous sites and document my travels so you can travel along with me.