Take An Anti-Valentine's Day Spree on the Blood & Dumplings LA crime bus tour

Esotouric's Halloween Gift To Los Angeles: Two Weird New Bus Tours

Highlights include:

Boyle Heights, where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez was captured and a mad dad ran amok.

Roam the hallowed lawns of Evergreen, L.A.’s oldest cemetery and home of some memorable haunts and strange burials.

Visit East Los Angeles, where a deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride–and you can get your hair done in a building shaped like a giant tamale.

Explore the ghastly streets of Commerce, where one small neighborhood’s crimes will shock and surprise.

Visit Montebello milk, eggnog and cookies at Broguiere’s Farm Fresh Dairy washed down with a horrifying case of child murder.

Saturday January 30, 12pm-4pm
Where: Tour departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 Alameda, Chinatown
Cost: $58/person
esotouric.com, 323-223-2767

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule:
Sat January 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat January 16 - Wild Wild West Side crime bus tour
Sat January 23 ­ Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat January 30 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour
Sun Feb 7 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA
Sat Feb 13 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Thurs Feb 18 ­ Jeremy Kasten presents "Spider Baby" with director Jack Hill
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sun Feb 21 - Joan Renner lecture "How the 'Bob' Changed History" (tentative)
Sat Feb 27 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The
Secret History of LA
Sat March 6 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat March 20 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat April 3 ­ John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat April 10 ­ Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sat April 24 ­ Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare

WHAT: L.A.'s most eclectic tour company launches new Halloween bus
adventures ­ EAST SIDE BABYLON crime bus tour and MAJA'S MYSTERIES spiritual
history tour
WHEN: Saturday October 31, 11am-3pm (Maja's Mysteries); Sunday November 1,
11am-3pm (East Side Babylon)
WHERE: Maja's Mysteries departs from Clifton's Cafeteria at 7th & Broadway
downtown; East Side Babylon departs from Philippe The Original, 1001
Alameda, Chinatown
COST: East Side Babylon $58/person; Maja's Mysteries $62/person
INFO:323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- When your business model is taking natives (and a few savvy
tourists) deep inside the dark and secret history of their own city, the
stakes are especially high come Halloween. For Esotouric's first two
Octobers, the bus adventure company took to the road with Crimebo the Clown
on a grisly tour of Hollywood crime scenes. But with Crimebo playing San
Francisco this year, Esotouric's fans demanded fresh Halloween
entertainment.

Esotouric rises from the grave and to the occasion with not one, but two all
new Halloween bus adventures: one reflecting the spiritual side of this
strange holiday during which the border between the living and the dead
becomes permeable, the other tour reflecting the slash and scream delights
of real life ghost and murder tales.

Tour #1, offered on Halloween day, is MAJA'S MYSTERIES: A MAGICAL EXCURSION
INTO SECRET LOS ANGELES. Hosted by esoteric scholar, lecturer, astrologer
and self-proclaimed white witch Maja D'Aoust of the Philosophical Research
Society, the tour is a guided excursion to some of the city's most
fascinating spiritual sites. Join Maja and Esotouric for a metaphysical
journey into history, faith and magic in the Southland, with in-depth visits
to compelling and seldom-seen spiritual landmarks. The tour's stops are
still being finalized, but include downtown's gorgeous 1927 Theosophy Hall,
which is simultaneously a time capsule and a thriving center for spiritual
study, and the local home of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), the esoteric
faith founded by Aleister Crowley in the early 20th Century.

Maja says, "The mystery of magic in all its forms lives and breathes in us
from the depths of our blood to the tips of our souls. From the Shamans of
old to the modern day quantum physicists, the effect of our sheer will on
the material world makes up a large part of what defines us as a species.
Impacting reality with our consciousness, and conversely, reality's impact
upon our consciousness lies at the base of every kind of magic from
sympathetic voodoo to thaumaturgy. Making things happen with your mind,
whether bringing the rain, healing a disease, invoking a God or
prestidigitating an illusion, the art of conscious change is the very heart
of the magical mystery of living."

Tour #2, offered on Sunday November 1, is EAST SIDE BABYLON, the latest
addition to Esotouric's popular crime bus tour series. Passengers on the
debut excursion will discover fascinating, little-known neighborhoods and
the grim memories they hold. Come visit Boyle Heights, where the Night
Stalker was captured and a mad dad ran amok. Roam the hallowed lawns of
Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery and home of some memorable haunts and
strange burials. Visit East Los Angeles, where a deranged radio shop
employee made mince meat of his boss and bride--and you can get your hair
done in a building shaped like a giant tamale. Explore the ghastly streets
of Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and
surprise. Visit Montebello, for scrumptious milk and cookies at Broguiere's
Farm Fresh Dairy washed down with a horrifying case of child murder. All
this, and so much more on EAST SIDE BABYLON, Esotouric's exploration of
L.A.'s most horrifying forgotten crimes.

Tour creator Kim Cooper says, "After years spent collecting dreadful tales
from the east side of the L.A. River, I'm thrilled to unleash them as part
of a weekend of Halloween happenings. With Maja's tour on Saturday, we pay
proper respect to the mysteries of the universe, and then my Sunday tour is
all about wallowing in the dark side and scaring ourselves half to death.
And as awful as the crimes are, they happened in such interesting,
seldom-seen neighborhoods! I think we've got something for everyone this
Halloween weekend, and can't wait to see what ghouls turn up to go exploring
with us."

esotouric.com

Tour hosts Maja D'Aoust, Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are available for
interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the
Esotouric bus. Contact Kim at amscray@gmail.com, 323-223-2767.

Where to stay:  Hotel accommodations nearby include a very nice Four Points by Sheraton Culver City, Radisson Hotel and other affordable chain hotels in Culver City and the surrounding area.