For as long as San Pedrans can remember, the stark beauty of the Point Fermin cliffs has drawn photographers, model plane enthusiasts and wedding planners.
But old-timers know that the steep, rock-strewn bluffs -- featured in a scene in the movie "Chinatown" -- have a haunting history as well.
In the last two decades, a number of people have fallen to their deaths there in tragic accidents and suicides, their bodies discovered far below on jagged rocks at the ocean's edge.
Some who plummeted off the cliffs have survived their falls. Some were victims of gang violence; other cases remain shrouded in mystery.
Locals mention the allure of the cliffs when they are buffeted by fierce winds. Some youths, they say, play a game of balancing themselves at the top of the bluffs, counting on the winds pushing against their bodies to stop them from falling.
The death of USC kicker Mario Danelo, 21, whose body was found Saturday at the bottom of a San Pedro cliff, has brought renewed attention to the beauty and sad history of the area.
"It's as dangerous as it is hypnotically beautiful," said San Pedro restaurateur John Papadakis. "There's no telling what goes on there. People lose their equilibrium."
On Monday, some residents of this close-knit harbor community lingered at an impromptu memorial for Danelo that has sprung up against the concrete balustrade at the cliffs' edge.
"I'm trying to figure it out -- how he could have fallen," said Richard Korgan, 59, who slowly rode his bike along the sidewalk flanking the balustrade.
Still, Korgan, a San Pedro native and longshoreman, understands the lure of the cliffs. As a boy, he and his friends would venture out past the fence to the cliff's edge -- "to see what's down there. Just curiosity. But for the grace of God, it could have been me."
Despite its rugged Monterey-style bluffs and 1874 lighthouse, Point Fermin Park is not a major regional tourist attraction. Like San Pedro itself, it feels like a distant outpost of Los Angeles, 25 miles south of downtown.
But its vistas are known the world over. An important turning point in the 1974 film "Chinatown" was filmed there. The lead character, Jake Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson, follows the character Hollis Mulwray to the point. Mulwray watches as fresh water is dumped into the Pacific, despite a major drought.
The backdrop of cliffs and surf, with pelicans soaring overhead, has made this a popular location for weddings, reunions and funerals.
