Griffith Park — Los Angeles’ Unofficial Graveyard

With its substantial parklands and varied landscapes, Griffith Park is often used in the media to be used as jungle brush, desert and summer camps. Due to its expanse and rough terrain, the land is also the perfect dumping ground for bodies, suicides and accidental deaths.

Josie Klakström
7 min readJul 21, 2020
Photo by De’Andre Bush on Unsplash

“Another one? They’re always finding bodies up here.” — Lynda Burdick, employee at Griffith Park.

The park, which sits on the eastern edge of the Santa Monica mountains, is one of the largest urban parks in North America. Its attractions include the Hollywood sign, Bronson Canyon, the Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Observatory, an amphitheatre and a golf course.

The Park was used as housing for veterans during World War II. The camp became the Army Western Corps Photographic Centre and Camouflage Experimental Laboratory, until the end of the war.

Griffith Park has seen major fires in its history. In 1933, 29 civilians lost their lives, trying to fight the fire. It was one of the deadliest fires in U.S history with over 150 treated for injuries.

--

--

Josie Klakström

Josie is a freelance journo who writes about writing, true crime, culture and marketing. www.truecrimeedition.com