Haunted Dorm at UC Santa Cruz
Former Murder Capital of the World
When I moved in to Stevenson College, I had no idea that Santa Cruz had the history of being the Murder Capital of the World. In 1991, the town was still recovering from the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. The Pacific Garden Mall crumbled in October of 1989. A brick wall at Bookshop Santa Cruz fell and two customers died during the 6.5 earthquake.
When I arrived in the fall of 1991, the rubble had been cleared but there was an uneasy feeling in the city. The downtown area was called Tent City with businesses housed in literal tents for years.
I must have seen the Lost Boys twenty times while at UCSC. That’s when I learned that Santa Cruz was the murder capital of the world in 1970s. I also learned the word “necrophiliac.” I think UCSC started in 1967 with only a few buildings. And one of the serial killers in Santa Cruz killed female hitchhikers and had intercourse with corpses. I’m kind of surprised that that history didn’t make it into the Lost Boys. There is some sort of vortex in Santa Cruz. Maybe at the Mystery Spot?
There was a very different feeling on campus. At the time, UC Santa Cruz was the youngest member of the University of California. None of the buildings on campus were damaged by the earthquake and much of the sprawling campus was undeveloped, pristine, coastal…
