Some Of The Most Macabre And Disturbing Items On Display At The Museum Of Death In Hollywood

In a side hallway in the Museum of Death in Hollywood, there is a grisly display called "For Your Consideration." It’s a series of photographs of a young woman who murdered her ex-boyfriend with the assistance of her new boyfriend. The pair then took various pictures of themselves grinning and posing as they mutilated and dismembered the victim’s nude body. Oddly enough, the pair had the pictures developed at a local department store.

Henri Ladru was a French serial killer who routinely courted and then murdered widows in Paris throughout the early 1900s. Landru posted a personal ad in a local paper falsely advertising himself as a widower seeking matrimony. He then lured vulnerable women to a villa just outside Paris, wooed them until they signed their savings over to him, and ultimately killed and dismembered them.

In 1919, the sister of one of Landru’s victims tipped off the authorities. The police closed in on Landru and raided his home, where they found incriminating evidence that included bone fragments in his oven and a list of missing women. Landru was eventually executed via guillotine for his crimes.

If you want to see the remains of the famed serial killer, you can do so at the Museum of Death in Los Angeles. Landru’s severed, mummified head is on display behind glass.

Heaven’s Gate was a cult that was formed in the 1970s and gained traction via the internet in the 1990s. Founded by Texas music teacher Marshall Applewhite and nurse Bonnie Nettles, the cult believed they were living in the end times and would be taken to new planets by a spacecraft that was following the Halle-Bop comet. In order to ascend to a higher plane, 39 cult members committed suicide by ingesting barbiturate-laced applesauce they then washed down with vodka in March of 1997.

The cult members’ bodies were discovered in a mansion near San Diego, CA. The deceased all wore Nike sneakers, placed bags over their heads, and covered their bodies with purple shrouds. If you want to see this macabre scene recreated with dummies, you can do so at the Museum of Death in Hollywood. In addition to the display, the video Marshall Applewhite made explaining the reason for the mass suicide plays near the exhibit.

The film Traces of Death plays on a loop in the back room of the Museum of Death in Hollywood. Traces of Death is a 1993 documentary that allegedly contains actual video footage of a variety of deaths. While the footage is a bit grainy, some truly disturbing moments are captured in the film.

President John Kennedy’s gruesome assassination on November 22, 1963 shocked the nation, especially since his death was caught on tape. The Museum of Death in Hollywood contains a sculpture of JFK’s head post-assassination, with the right side of the scalp and skull missing. There are also actual autopsy photos pinned up behind the sculpture.

Dr. Anton LeVey, founder of the Church of Satan, procured the stuffed corpses of various celebrity pets over the years. The Museum of Death obtained some artifacts from LeVey’s personal collection. You can see the stuffed corpse of Liberace’s cat Candy, as well as the body of one of the Chihuahuas that belonged to actress Jayne Mansfield. The dog was killed in the same car crash as Mansfield on June 29, 1967.