Esotouric to offer Thanksgiving Saturday Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour

Thanksgiving Saturday Bus Tour Explores the San Gabriel Valley's legacy of weird crimes, mad genius and great eats

WHAT: Esotouric's Blood & Dumplings Crime Bus Tour - Thanksgiving Edition

WHEN: Saturday November 29, 2008, 12pm-4pm

WHERE: Tour departs from Philippe the Original, 1001 N. Alameda Street

COST: $63, including dumplings (vegetarian options available on request)

INFO: http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

This Thanksgiving weekend, slip quietly away from the family table (or bring your sick and twisted grandma along) and join offbeat bus tour company Esotouric as it presents its most bizarre true crime and cultural history tour, BLOOD & DUMPLINGS in a very special holiday edition.

Starting from the premise that the secret heart of Southern California's weirdo culture beats strongest in the Eastern San Gabriel Valley, the tour introduces passengers to such fascinating local characters as the Man from Mars Bandit, record producer Phil Spector, lion tamers Charles and Muriel Gay, and indie filmmaking icon Timothy Carey, whose notorious "The World's Greatest Sinner" was shot on location in 1960s El Monte.

Heading due East out of downtown, the tour explores several historic communities that reflect the growth and eccentricity that are hallmarks of 20th century L.A. Crime Bus passengers will be explore notorious, strange and fascinating forgotten tales from the past hundred years, each told at the scene of the crime.

They'll thrill to the freakish case of the Man from Mars Bandit who stalked area supermarkets for months in 1951 before meeting his match in a police sharpshooter, shock to discover the deadly infighting among El Monte's American Nazi Party members, mourn the Case of the Buried Bride dragged beneath her home on her wedding day by her secret lover, gnash teeth at the weird lion farm (home to every MGM lion) that served lion meat barbecues on special occasions, and view scenes of notorious cases including Phil Spector's spooky hilltop castle and James Ellroy's slain mother Geneva (the true-life inspiration for his Black Dahlia novel).

And since no visit to the San Gabriel Valley is complete without a delicious Chinese meal, the Crime Bus will stop at 101 Noodle Express (one of L.A.Weekly critic Jonathan Gold's picks for 99 L.A. restaurants not to be missed) to pick up a dumpling feast, which will be enjoyed picnic-style at Monster Park, a remarkable sea-themed folk art environment recently saved from demolition. There passengers can enjoy their snack in the mouth of a concrete whale, or under a grinning octopus, then pose for photos with the creatures.

All this, plus wild shootouts, dope-dealing druggists, missing Salvador Dali paintings and the original "little girl down a well" 1940s television sensation.

Don't miss the Crime Bus tour that guide Kim Cooper calls "My personal favorite of all our tours, packed with more offbeat history, horror, roadside architecture and fabulous Route 66 vistas than any other."

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule:
Sat Nov 22- Noir November: Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
Sat Nov 29- Noir November: Blood & Dumplings
Sat Dec 6- Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Dec 11- The Hippodrome & Hazard's Pavilion (Downtown LA Art WalkShuttles, free)
Sat Dec 13- Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Jan 8- The Hippodrome & Hazard's Pavilion (Downtown LA Art WalkShuttles, free)
Sat Jan 10 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat Jan 17 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: Route 66
Sat Jan 24 - Weird West Adams
Sun Jan 31 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: South LA architecture tour
Thurs Feb 12 - The Hippodrome & Hazard's Pavilion (Downtown LA Art WalkShuttles, free)
Sat Feb 14- Blood & Dumplings
Sat Feb 21- Raymond Chandler's LA
Sat Feb 28 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' LA