It was the early 1980s when residents of a Pasadena neighborhood noticed something amiss at the nearby crematorium. The facility was suddenly operating round the clock, smoke billowing from its chimney well after business hours.

Fellow morticians were also alarmed at the uptick in the number of bodies cremated by the Lamb Funeral Home, a respected, family-run establishment and pillar of the Southern California mortuary business for generations. It wasn’t long before allegations of organ harvesting, mass incineration of bodies and murder made the local and national news. A new L.A. crime noir story was born.

Premiering Sunday and airing weekly, HBO’s three-part docuseries “The Mortician” chronicles the ghoulish offenses of David Sconce, great-grandson of the mortuary‘s founder and son of owners Jerry W. Sconce and Laurieanne Lamb Sconce. He was the picture of Southern California affluence and privilege: a blond-haired, blue-eyed high school quarterback with professional football aspirations until his hopes were dashed by a torn ligament.

Sconce found his calling running the family’s crematorium, where he maximized profits by incinerating multiple bodies in the same chamber. Unsuspecting survivors of the deceased were none the wiser when they scattered the ashes of a loved one at sea, but in fact the cremains were of several different people.

And that’s just the tip of the macabre in this docuseries from director and producer Joshua Rofé (“Lorena”).

Sconce also harvested organs and body parts for profit, pulled teeth to extract the gold from fillings, and was investigated for allegedly contracting a hit on a rival and poisoning another competitor who was trying to expose the crimes at the Lamb funeral home.

Sconce eventually pleaded guilty to 21 criminal counts — including for mutilating corpses, holding mass cremations and hiring hit men — and was sentenced in 1989 to five years in prison. However, he was released in 1991 after serving two and a half years, then sentenced to 25 years to life in 2013 after violating probation. He was released on parole in 2023.

“The Mortician” reveals fresh angles into the decades-old case via a bevy of interviews with those who were there. But it’s Sconce himself who provides the most insight into his crimes when he alternately denies and then brags about his transgressions (he appears proud of his ability to stuff as many bodies as possible into a crematory chamber, sometimes by breaking bones or cutting off limbs). Now 68, he’s speaks at length in the documentary about the events that landed him in jail, appearing more aggrieved than remorseful.

“I don’t put any value on anybody after they’re gone and dead,” he said of mixing remains. “As they shouldn’t when I’m gone and dead. Love ‘em when they’re here.” He then justifies his actions as a practical business decision: “I could cremate one guy in two hours, or you could put 10 of them in there and take two and a half hours. So what would be the difference? There is none.”

Also interviewed are former funeral home employees, former L.A. Times journalist Ashley Dunn and former Pasadena Star-News reporter David Geary. Several victims who were duped by Sconce also offer testimonials about the deception. Former law enforcement officials who busted Sconce’s second crematory facility in Hesperia — an old ceramics factory replete with kilns — recall the canals installed below the repurposed kiln doors that were used to catch the human fat drippings coming from the packed chambers.

“The Mortician” is not the cable network’s first series about a family of undertakers operating a Pasadena funeral home. The dark dramedy “Six Feet Under” also revolved around a dysfunctional family generations in the embalming business. But all similarities stop there. There is nothing remotely funny about the twisted world of the Lambs, but in “The Jinx” fashion, Sconce’s own words at the end of this docuseries may come back to burn him.

Loretta Swit, the Emmy-winning actor best known for her time as Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the TV version of “M*A*S*H,” died Friday in her New York City apartment, her representative confirmed to The Times. She was 87.

Swit was found by her housekeeper around 10 a.m., according to publicist Harlan Boll, who said he had been on the phone with her at 11 p.m. local time Thursday night — 2 a.m. Friday in New York. Her doorman saw her drop something in the mail at 4 a.m. Friday, New York time, Boll said, and six hours later, she was gone.

The actor — born Loretta Jane Szwed on Nov. 4, 1937, in Passaic, N.J. — loved playing Hot Lips so much that she was the only performer other than Alan Alda who stayed on the series from its pilot in 1972 through its much-watched finale in 1983. “M*A*S*H,” set during the Korean War, was a sitcom but also more than that to Swit.

“There is, I think, an intelligence behind the humor,” she told The Times in 1977. “The audience is huge, and they deserve to be entertained on the highest level we can achieve.”

Though her portrayal of the libido-driven blond in fatigues and Army boots catapulted Swit to household-name status, she had been in acting since before her 8th birthday in stage productions and musicals in New York. She left home at 17 to work in the theater, temping at secretarial jobs while studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

A confessed workaholic, Swit moved easily from comedy to drama, acting in “Same Time, Next Year,” “Mame” and “The Odd Couple” before moving to Los Angeles to star in “M*A*S*H.” She appeared in iconic series such as “Hawaii Five-O,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Mannix,” and had a productive television career until very recently.

Her most recent TV appearance was as herself in the 2024 Fox tribute special “M*A*S*H: The Comedy That Changed Television.”

Her theater work was plentiful, and in addition to Broadway, off-Broadway, regional and national work, included shows in Southern California. She joined Harry Hamlin in “One November Yankee” at the NoHo Arts Center in 2012, three years after doing a reading of the play with a different actor at the Pasadena Playhouse.

“M*A*S*H” filmed its outdoor scenes at Malibu Creek State Park, where the set was re-created for fans’ enjoyment in 2008.

“It’s thrilling to be honored in this way,” Swit told The Times that year. “I think if I had to sum it up, what we’re most proud of is that we made everybody come together. And I think this will also bring people together.”

Swit was nominated for 10 Emmys for her Hot Lips role and won for supporting actress in a comedy, variety or music series in 1980 and 1982. She garnered four Golden Globe nominations for her work on “M*A*S*H,” in the lead and supporting actress categories, but did not win.

She was given a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 1989, near what is now the home of Amoeba Music.

An animal lover, Swit set up the SwitHeart Animal Alliance to prevent cruelty and end animal suffering. The alliance worked with numerous nonprofit organizations and programs to protect, rescue, train and care for animals and preserve their habitat, while raising public awareness about issues that concern domestic, farm, exotic, wild and native animals.

She created an art book, “SwitHeart: The Watercolour Artistry & Animal Activism of Loretta Swit,” which includes 65 of her full-color paintings and drawings and 22 of her photographs. Proceeds went to animal causes, and the 2016 Betty White Award from the group Actors and Others for Animals was but one of the many honors she received for her philanthropic work.

Former freelance writer T.L. Stanley contributed to this report.