The hillside neighborhood of Los Feliz is located in the central part of Los Angeles, abuts Hollywood and encompasses part of the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s an affluent part of Los Angeles with stately homes and professionally manicured lawns, gated driveways and fantastic views from hilltop homes. If you were to walk down the streets of this fair community you might see a few familiar faces such as Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ellen Pompeo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Drew Barrymore. Driving along the 2600 block of Glendower Avenue, you might even recognize the Ennis House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the exterior of the house was featured in the classic 1959 movie “The House on Haunted Hill” which starred Vincent Price. The serenity of this neighborhood is disturbed little, oh - you may hear the occasional rumble of a diesel engine or see the white tour bus which chugs through the hills en route to the house once owned by George Hill Hodel, who was considered by some as a suspect in the Black Dahlia murder case in the 1940‘s, but these days its all picturesque and serene, the kind of neighborhood where you'd maybe like to move to and raise your family or to retire to in your golden years.
There's this house for instance. A house located at 2475 Glendower Place, in Los Feliz, which has just recently come onto the housing market. It’s a four bedroom, three bath Spanish Revival mansion, originally built in 1925, with a third floor ballroom and bar, built-ins, a grand entrance way with step-down living room, formal dining room, library/study, large kitchen and has a three car garage at street level as well as a two car garage at the end of the driveway. It’s not been lived in for over 50 years, with the previous owners having used it only for storage! (Click Here to see the Real Estate blurb from Berkshire-Hathaway with photos) - It’s considered to be a fixer-upper kind of place and a downright steal for only $2.7 million dollars! So what am I not telling you? Yes, you do know me well! You know that I'd not be doing an article on just a simple, ordinary house like this, even if it were a $2.7 million dollar mansion. Here's the rest of the story...
Doctor Harold Pereson, age 50, was a quiet and kind man and his neighbors in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz only had nice words to say about him and his family. It was December 6th, 1959, and he’d come home for dinner that evening just like any other ordinary evening. His wife, Lillian, had made dinner for him and their three children, Judye (age 18), Debbie (age 13) and Joel (age 11). After dinner, the family watched some television and then the two younger children went to bed. An hour passed and Dr. Pereson’s wife Lillian, headed up to bed as well along with the eldest daughter Judye. Dr. Pereson waited until the two had gone upstairs and then entered the attached garage where he retrieved a ball-peen hammer. Walking without hurry back into the house, he climbed the stairs and entered the master bedroom. Lillian lay in bed reading. Walking up to her side of the bed, he asked her a question and when she looked up to answer him, he raised the hammer high over his head and brought it down upon his wife’s head with so much force that it shattered her skull into fragments. Covered in his wife’s blood, he then calmly went to his eldest daughter’s room where he attempted to kill her in the same manner.
Judye managed to escape her father who’d attempted to crush her skull in the same manner as his wife’s, with a serious but glancing blow. Confused and in an attempt to elude her father, she ran towards her parents bedroom for her mother. She screamed when she saw her dead mother who was sitting in bed, slightly askew. Blood painted the floral wallpaper behind her like an abstract painting. Her father had followed her into the bedroom and again made an attempt to bring the hammer down upon his daughter’s head, deflected once more as Judye managed to raise her forearm in time, the hammer landing down upon her forehead but with little force behind it. Once more she tried to flee but Judye slipped on the blood soaked carpet. Harold slammed her head to the floor and hit her again with the hammer. She laid there on the bedroom floor, stunned. Then, Harold made his way out of the room to check on the youngest two children. Opening their bedroom door, he told them that they were having a nightmare and to go back to bed. Surprisingly, he never intended to hurt them and they survived the insanity of that night unharmed.
While Harold was distracted with the younger two, Judye managed to crawl through the patio door and onto the lawn. Picking herself up, still stunned from her head injuries, she managed to flea to a neighbor’s house and as soon as they saw the blood oozing from her head, they called police.
Beack inside the Perelson’s house, Harold sat down in a mustard colored chair in the living room and dropped the hammer beside him. At this point, the truth of what happened next becomes a bit murky as there are two variations of what took place next. In one version, it’s said that the good doctor took an overdose of Nembutal, while another version says that he sat down and drank a bottle of acid, dying as it burned through his throat and stomach. Personally, I believe it was the latter as an overdose from Nembutal would’ve taken time to work and he would’ve still been alive when police arrived. The entire event from start to finish took no more than ten minutes. Police sped to the house with sirens blaring but upon arrival it was too late for either Harold Perelsen or his wife. Both were dead. All that could be done was to tend to Judye’s injuries and comfort the two younger children.
Judye managed to escape her father who’d attempted to crush her skull in the same manner as his wife’s, with a serious but glancing blow. Confused and in an attempt to elude her father, she ran towards her parents bedroom for her mother. She screamed when she saw her dead mother who was sitting in bed, slightly askew. Blood painted the floral wallpaper behind her like an abstract painting. Her father had followed her into the bedroom and again made an attempt to bring the hammer down upon his daughter’s head, deflected once more as Judye managed to raise her forearm in time, the hammer landing down upon her forehead but with little force behind it. Once more she tried to flee but Judye slipped on the blood soaked carpet. Harold slammed her head to the floor and hit her again with the hammer. She laid there on the bedroom floor, stunned. Then, Harold made his way out of the room to check on the youngest two children. Opening their bedroom door, he told them that they were having a nightmare and to go back to bed. Surprisingly, he never intended to hurt them and they survived the insanity of that night unharmed.
While Harold was distracted with the younger two, Judye managed to crawl through the patio door and onto the lawn. Picking herself up, still stunned from her head injuries, she managed to flea to a neighbor’s house and as soon as they saw the blood oozing from her head, they called police.
Beack inside the Perelson’s house, Harold sat down in a mustard colored chair in the living room and dropped the hammer beside him. At this point, the truth of what happened next becomes a bit murky as there are two variations of what took place next. In one version, it’s said that the good doctor took an overdose of Nembutal, while another version says that he sat down and drank a bottle of acid, dying as it burned through his throat and stomach. Personally, I believe it was the latter as an overdose from Nembutal would’ve taken time to work and he would’ve still been alive when police arrived. The entire event from start to finish took no more than ten minutes. Police sped to the house with sirens blaring but upon arrival it was too late for either Harold Perelsen or his wife. Both were dead. All that could be done was to tend to Judye’s injuries and comfort the two younger children.
End of Part One
Part Two tomorrow
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