Ep. 387 - DeSoto House Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Charfield Railway Disaster (Suggested by: Mike Rodgers)

In this episode, we will be talking about a Lady in Black spirit and synchronistically, we have another story here about a Lady in Black connected to a couple of mysteries connected to a train crash. A passenger train was heading from Leeds, England to Bristow on a foggy night in October of 1928. The train was traveling fast and scheduled to arrive early at a railway station in Charfield, Gloucestershire, which it was just supposed to pass through. A freight train was backing off the track when the Leeds train arrived and there was a horrible collision that killed 16 people, burning them so they were unrecognizable. Family members managed to identify the victims, save for two children: a girl of 12 and a boy of 5. Nobody ever came forward to identify or claim the children. No one knew where these children came from and they were buried together in a common grave with no names on the tombstone. While the country worked to identify the children, investigators tried to figure out how the crash happened. The Leeds train was in perfect working order. The conductor and fireman both survived and claimed that all the lights coming into Charfield had been green, while the signal man said he had turned them to red. And even though there was fog, there had been no fog signal man. No one was ever charged and the cause of the crash remains a mystery. The third mystery connected to the crash entailed a woman in black who would arrive by limousine and place flowers on the grave of the children two or three times a year. She was frail and wore a veil, so no one ever saw her face. Some people claimed that she was a ghost who would disappear and that the car sometimes disappeared too. These things remain mysteries connected to the the Charfield Railway Disaster and that, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Brooklyn Bridge Opens

In the month of May, on the 24th, in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge Opens. John Roebling was a pioneer in steel suspension bridge design and he solved a major problem with them that caused failure. New York State accepted Roebling's design for a bridge that would connect Brooklyn and Manhattan. This would be the world's first steel suspension bridge and spanned 1,595 feet. Roebling wouldn't live to fulfill his duty as chief engineer. A boat smashed his toes while he was doing compass readings for the bridge and he died of tetanus three weeks later. He would be the first of two dozen people who would died building the bridge. His son Washington would take over and two granite foundations would be the first parts of the bridge built. The bridge took fourteen years to complete. Thousands of residents turned out for the dedication ceremony that was headed by President Chester A. Arthur Governor Grover Cleveland. Washington was injured by the bends while working on the bridge and partially paralyzed, so it would be his wife Emily that would take the victory lap across the bridge. She rode in a car with a rooster, which was a symbol of victory. By the end of that first twenty-four hours of being opened, 250,000 had walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

DeSoto House Hotel (Suggested by: Amanda Allen and Jennie Douglas)

The DeSoto House Hotel sits at the corner of Green and Main Streets in downtown Galena, Illinois. This building has claims that it is the most haunted hotel in Illinois and with a history that includes President Abraham Lincoln, that reputation seems fitting. This was a beautiful hotel hosting grand balls until the economy hit it hard, but it has risen once again to provide the finest in accommodations. And with a Lady in Black who wandered the dining room so much that they left a hole in the wall for her, who wouldn't want to stay here? Join us as we share the history and hauntings of the DeSoto House Hotel. 

Galena, Illinois was once the principal river port of the Upper Mississippi Valley. The hills, bluffs and valleys make this area very scenic and with nearly 85% of Galena's buildings being on the National Register Historic District, this town should be on everyone's bucket list. The Sac and Fox tribes were some of the first people here and they mined the lead deposits found here. French traders arrived in the late 1600s and they established a trading post. Others came for the lead deposits and in the early 1800s, Congress established the Upper Mississippi Lead Mine District. This is where Galena got its name because that is the technical term for sulphide of lead.

By the 1850s, Galena became a shipping port with the Galena River flowing into the Mississippi River. The population grew to 14,000 and Galena was shipping 54 million pounds of lead a year. The Illinois Central Railroad brought a line through town and hotels were built to accommodate the travelers.  The Galena Hotel Company was formed by a group of investors and they made their first project the DeSoto House, which they named for Hernando de Soto who discovered the Mississippi River.

The DeSoto House Hotel opened on April 9, 1855 as the “Largest Hotel in the West” and featured five stories with 225 guest rooms, a 300 seat dining room and other smaller dining rooms, Ladies' Parlors, Gentlemen's Reading Room, a saloon, huge kitchen with the modern appliances of the time, gas lights, offices, retail stores and a bowling alley. John C. Parks stepped up as the first proprietor of the hotel and the deal he made with the hotel company was that he would furnish the building in exchange for a two year rent-free contract. He spent $15,000 on furniture made from rosewood, velvet carpeting, satin damask curtains, marble-topped tables and a beautiful rosewood hand-carved piano.

Both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas visited the hotel and spoke from a balcony that overlooked the main street. Lincoln was there on July 23, 1856, and he campaigned for John Fremont who was seeking the presidency. Stephen Douglas was a senator when he spoke from the same balcony on July 25, 1858. Fifteen thousand people held a rally in front of the hotel when Lincoln ran for president. President Lincoln wasn't the only president connected to the hotel. William Jennings Bryan was also a guest here. Ulysses S. Grant was from Galena. This was his hometown and when he returned home victorious from the Civil War, 25,000 people lined the streets to welcome him and a grand reception ball was held in his honor at the DeSoto's ballroom. When Grant ran for president, Rooms 209 and 211 became his presidential campaign headquarters.

These were big historic moments for the hotel. Good times. But the hotel would have some major issues. The first thing to befall it was a fire on June 2, 1859 that destroyed a dozen rooms on each floor. The entire hotel was damaged from the smoke and water. Ten years later, a boiler down in the basement exploded. The owners at the time decided to call it quits and auctioned off all the furnishings and by December of 1870, the hotel was closed. The closure wouldn't last long as W.H. Blewett purchased the hotel in 1871 and he redecorated the hotel and refurnished it to better reflect that time period. Some well known guests during this period were balloonist Silas Brooks, Duprey and Green's Minstrels and General and Mrs. Tom Thumb. The top two floors of the hotel were removed in 1880. Hot and cold running water would soon follow and bathrooms were added to all floors. When economic times were down, the hotel served as a boarding house. 

New renovations would be completed in the 1970s, but the hotel would still find itself facing demolition. There was an outcry from the town people and Mayor Frank Einsweiller began an effort to fund a complete restoration, which would take seven years to gather $7.8 million in funds. This renovation took place for a year between April 15, 1985 and April 19, 1986. When this was done there was a four-story atrium Courtyard dining room, the Generals' Restaurant with original brick walls and beamed ceilings named for nine Civil War generals that were from Galena, the Green Street Tavern, 55 guest rooms with private baths, ballroom, specialty shops and conference and banquet rooms. The front lobby has this great wrap around front staircase that you can imagine Lincoln once walked up and down. The furnishings and decor harken back to the Victorian era.

This town that time forgot has not been forgotten by its previous residents. Ghosts wander many places in Galena and several ghost tours are offered. The DeSoto House Hotel has lots of ghost stories connected to it with the first ones dating back to the 1800s. In one newspaper article, a woman claimed that a black figure came to her window. Guests for years have caught the scent of cigar smoke and strange perfume. Disembodied voices are heard in the hallways and full-bodied apparitions in period clothing have been seen. The third floor seems to have the most activity with Room 333 being the most haunted, although the Green Street Tavern gives it a good run for its money with its Lady in Black who wears a period dress. People claim to hear sounds from the fourth and fifth floors, which no longer exist.

The story behind the Lady in Black is that she has regularly been seen walking into a wall near the fireplace in the Green Street Tavern. She even seems to have been captured in this photo:

Contractors were repairing plaster in the restaurant after a flood and discovered a doorway behind a wall. The place in the wall that the Lady in Black would walk into. So they decided to leave this area of the wall open and put plexiglass over it. Then they hung a sign next to it reading:

Guests claim that the hotel is haunted, but in a nice way and most stories seem fairly benign. Connie wrote on the Midwest Wanderer website, "The desk clerk I spoke with said she never believed in the paranormal until her experiences at the DeSoto House.  First was a cold chill followed by a bright ball of light that zoomed past her as she worked on the third floor late at night, with no explanation as to where the light could have come from.  Then there were the reports from several guests that they felt someone sit on the edge of the bed.  The reports were always from guests staying in the same room."

A woman named Mary wrote, "My husband and I stayed at the Desoto House 2012 and I can tell you that I did think someone sat on the bed next to me. I was so surprised to see no one was there when I looked up from my phone. I called out to my husband and he was in the bathroom at the time. There was definitely someone with me but I couldn’t see or hear anyone. Creepy feeling. Later that same night when we were getting into bed I reached out to shut off the lamp and before my hand got near the lamp the light went out. That did it for me. I knew someone was in our room with us. Our room was on the second floor. We never heard a sound or voices but that was enough for me to be sure there was someone with us that night."

On the Illinois Haunted House website, "I love Galena in general, and always wanted to stay at the Desoto House. I had always heard about the haunted history, and thought since I was finally staying there I’d bring my Spirit Box for fun to investigate a bit. Sometimes it’s hard to make out voices on the SB 7, but these were some of the clearest responses I have ever heard/gotten. Was really cool just sitting in my room communicating. Turned my skeptic girlfriend into a believer real quick! Can’t wait to go back! Don’t remember the room number unfortunately, but the whole town has spirits. Was just last year 2019. All around a great place to spend the weekend! "

Lynn wrote, "My husband and I stayed here in January about 5 years ago. I can’t remember if we stayed on the second or third floor. We too had a couple of strange things happen. The first night I turned the TV off manually and it came back on– twice!! The second night I woke up and saw this strange light slowly moving around the coffered ceiling! It wasn’t a ball of light, more like wave of light. I must not have been too scared though cause I went back to sleep!"

Christina wrote, "We stayed nearby over this past weekend, but stopped in the Green Street Tavern for lunch. I hadn’t read about any of the haunting stories or anything in advance. As we were waiting for our lunch, something distinctly brushed my cheek. I was astonished that there wasn’t something actually touching my face. I thought it must be a few long hairs grazing me (my hair is very short), and even wondered if the woman behind me had swept her hair back off her shoulders inadvertently brushing my cheek, but my significant other said nothing/nobody had come near me. Just a moment later, as I was still trying to figure it out, the same sensation occurred near my collarbone on my chest. I was startled and kind of unsettled, but it made me laugh almost uncontrollably – very out of character for me to begin such a giggling jag."

Gale Schultz, food and beverage supervisor at the Desoto House Hotel, claims she saw the Lady in Black. She said, "I was walking with another server one day and I stopped dead in my tracks and I saw her just walk right past me and go up the stairs. And I turned to the server and she said 'Oh my God, I just saw that too.' So she did see the lady in black as well." Schultz described her as wearing black clothes and she had a smokey type of figure.

Elizabeth wrote, "I stayed there with my husband about a year ago. In the middle of the night I was woken up by the feeling of my husband getting into bed on the right side of the bed, laying down next to me, and putting his arm around me. i bought it was a little strange since he always sleeps on the left side of the bed and isn’t much of a cuddled when he sleeps. But I didn’t think too much of it and drifted back to sleep for a bit. I woke up a little while later and was surprised to see my husband back on “his” side of the bed. In the morning I asked if he had gotten up during the night at all and switched sides of the bed and he said he didn’t. He isn’t prone to sleepwalking. It was very strange. Definitely could have been a dream on my part but it was so vivid!"

Mary Earl wrote, "First of all i want to say i would never stay at any other hotel in Galena! It`s smack dab in the middle of town so you can literally park your car in the attached parking garage and start having fun. Second i`d like to share a paranormal experience i had on the first floor ladies restroom. I was in the stall and the restroom was empty except for me. Suddenly i was shocked to hear an infant crying since i didn`t hear the door open and anyone enter. Then as the baby continued to cry i heard a womans voice hushing the child, i came directly out of the stall and to my surprise no one else was in there with me! I later heard from the desk clerk that what i had experienced was a paranormal happening and others had reported it happening to them also. I feel very happy that i got to experience the phenomenon!"

Sue wrote, "Last month we stayed in room 331. No action either night but the morning we were leaving, a light went out on its own. we tried to fix it and couldn’t. Then it went on, and off, and on, and flickered for a minute before staying on. Our friend was in the shower at the time. She came out and told us she felt a presence in there and asked it to turn the lights on and off, or even just flicker them, to let her know someone was there. She was so bummed out nothing responded to her continued requests when she had such a strong feeling. We were SHOCKED when she told us the requests she was asking, while they were actually occurring in the room instead of the shower! CREEPY!"

Vera Wrote, "My husband & I stayed at the DeSoto this past summer. Cannot remember our room number, but our corner room faced the Main Street. I got up middle of the night to use the bathroom. After returning to bed, I had difficulty falling asleep, feeling like something strange was going on. At first, I didn’t want to open my eyes, but thought, “That’s silly.” I opened my eyes, and saw a very thin woman in a black, somewhat sheer dress, walking past the foot of our bed. I actually tried to scream out my husband’s name, but was unable to utter a sound. The woman kept walking, towards the street side wall, but glanced at me, just as she disappeared through the wall."

Stacy wrote: " I fell asleep early, but was awakened by a vivid dream and the feeling of something hovering over my bed, it seemed black and frilly-like. In my dream I was running through an old building with tons of doors and I was getting lost and calling out for my sister-in-law. Then as I woke up I felt or saw a black figure hovering over me. I quickly jumped up- went to the rest room, grounded myself, and went back to bed! I was startled for a few moments. I didn’t wake my sister-in-law, but the next morning I told her that I had a scary dream about a black ghost. She laughed and said, “oh so it wasn’t Casper”? I replied, no it was black, and that was one freaky dream!!! I didn’t find out until two nights later that the hotel was famous for “The Lady in Black”, ghost. We took a ghost tour and learned about the many ghosts of the Galena hotel, and the infamous “Lady in Black. I was pretty freaked out for a for a few days, and I can’t explain it….. but I was visited by something that night. I can still see the figure as I awakened from my dream. I could not see a face, but it was over the end of my bed and seemed black and frilly, like a curtain, or dress. An experience that I have never had before, and so very vivid to me."

There is a ghost tour that starts in the lobby of the DeSoto, which seems to be a good indication that some paranormal activity is going on here. Is the DeSoto House Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 187 - Congress Plaza Hotel

 
Moment in Oddity - The Moon Mausoleum

William Judson Moon was a successful businessman in Caddo, Oklahoma. His wife was Mollie and he adored her. He would have to leave her on occassion for business and in 1904, we made a trip to St. Louis to supervise construction on a new hotel he was building. While he was away, Mollie committed suicide. William was devastated and he wanted to keep Mollie preserved. He built a glass casket for her, had her body carefully preserved and put her in her favorite dress. The local paper claimed that “the mummification is as complete as any the Egyptians ever accomplished.” He then built a brick mausoleum for her that has come to be known as the Moon Mausoleum. It cost him $2,000 to build. He would visit her every day and brush her hair. He changed her clothes and shoes sometimes and legend claims he even bathed her body. Throughout this time, the mausoleum was open to the public and Mollie became a type of tourist attraction. Over time, vandalism caused the family to close up the mausoleum and put bars on the windows. The devotion William showed his mummified wife defied the normal conventions of society and certainly were odd!

This Month in History - Julius Caesar Assassinated

In the month of March, on the 15th, in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar is assassinated by members of the Roman Senate. Caesar was at the height of his power in 44 B.C. and in his arrogance, he declared himself "Dictator for Life." Sixty members of the Roman Senate decided that the only choice they had was to assassinate Julius Caesar. The group never met publicly and they laid out their plans in small groups at each other's homes. They discussed throwing him from a bridge or attacking him walking along one of his favorite paths, but they finally decided that the Senate was the best place. He would be alone and they could hide daggers in their togas. After Caesar entered the chamber, the Senators unsheathed their daggers. Servilius Casca hit him first in the shoulder. Casca's brother then hit him between the ribs. Cassius Longinus hit him next and the attack continued with even Brutus, whom Caesar thought was his allie and friend, stabbing at Caesar as well. He fell at the feet of a statue, mortally wounded. Every conspirator wanted to get in a stab and when they were done, Caesar had at least thirty-five wounds. A battle ensued between armies of the Senate and supporters of Caesar and by the time that was done, several of the conspirators had committed suicide or had been killed.

Congress Plaza Hotel (Suggested by listeners Matthew Hirons and Kristin Swintek)

Chicago's Congress Plaza Hotel is said to be the city's most haunted hotel. Chicago hosted the World's Fair in 1893 and the hotel was built to help provide more accommodations, so it has been around for more than a century. World leaders, US Presidents and the rich and famous have all stayed here. There are rumors that the hotel was used during Prohibition by Al Capone. And similar to the inspiration The Stanley Hotel provided to Stephen King when writing The Shining, the Congress Plaza Hotel inspired him when writing his short story 1408, which eventually became the movie of the same name starring John Cusack. There seems to be many spirits at the hotel to help provide haunting inspiration. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Congress Plaza Hotel!

We can't discuss the history of the Congress Plaza Hotel without talking about the World's Columbian Exposition. This was an event organized to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's landfall in the New World. The first World Fair was held in 1790 in Prague, Bohemia. The country of France hosted the World Fairs for the next thirty years, all of them in Paris. The first World Fair hosted in America was in 1829 in New York. Chicago would host the twelfth World Fair to be held in America and this was the World's Columbian Exposition. Civic leaders in Washington, D.C., St. Louis, New York City and Chicago decided that another fair was needed in America to generate business and increase real estate values. Congress okayed the idea and it was left to them to decide if Chicago or New York City would be the host city. Financial giants from both cities competed with each other to pledge funds. New York's J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor, pledged $15 million. Chicago's Marshall Fields, Cyrus McCormick and Philip Armour, pledged the same. Plus, the people of Chicago threw in an additional $5 million in stock subscriptions. Congress voted for Chicago and a site was selected.

Many people wanted to have the fair in a central location, but there were difficulties with traffic and property rights. A marshy bog named Jackson Park, seven miles out, was chosen. Daniel H. Burnham was named the exposition's director of works. Burnham wanted to focus on architecture and sculpture to the degree that Paris had focused on engineering. He recruited the top architectural and artistic talent, including landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted wanted to design a park that would rival Central Park in New York City. *Fun fact: George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. designed the first Ferris Wheel as a landmark for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was meant to rival the Eiffel Tower, which debuted at the 1889 World's Fair.* The fair didn't end on a good note. It left behind a small pox epidemic, a fire that swept through the fairgrounds and destroyed many buildings and Mayor Carter Harrison was assassinated.

The Congress Plaza Hotel was built in 1893 to help provide accommodations for visitors to the world fair. And we can't state that fact on our podcast without pointing out an infamous hotel built in the White City at that same time by a certain H. H. Holmes: the Murder Castle. As a matter-of-fact, that hotel was named World's Fair Hotel. Originally, the Congress Plaza Hotel was called the Auditorium Annex and was designed to complement the building across from it that was Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Building. The hotel was designed by Clinton Warren and Louis Sullivan was a consultant for him, along with Dankmar Adler, both of whom built the Auditorium Building. Hotel developer R.H. Southgate built the hotel. The two buildings were connected by an underground marble passageway dubbed "Peacock Alley.”

Other features of the hotel were added later. Between 1902 and 1907, the Hoalbird and Roche Firm designed and built the fourteen-story South Tower. Part of this addition included the Gold Room, which was the first hotel ballroom in America to have air-conditioning. The twelve-story North Tower added the Florentine Room in 1909, which was another ballroom. At this point, there were 1,000 guest rooms. New owners decided to rebrand the hotel and give it a new identity. They looked to its location for inspiration. The street running along it was Congress Street and it was across from Congress Plaza, so they named it Congress Plaza Hotel in 1908.

Subsequent owners would add more improvements. Guestrooms were enhanced in 1916 to add electrical outlets and desk lamps and remove hanging chandeliers. Original bathroom fixtures were replaced in the early 1920s. The Elizabethan Room on the ground floor became a dance club with the innovation of a revolving bandstand in the 1930s. They renamed the club the Joseph Urban Room. In 1935, it was home to Benny Goodman and his NBC Radio show. During World War II, the hotel was purchased by the government and was used as a headquarters for U.S. Army officers. The hotel moved back to private hands in 1945 when a group of Chicagoans purchased it. In 1950, the Pick Hotel Corporation purchased the property and began a multi-million dollar renovation, which included adding a mural-encircled lobby, new front desk, new public rooms on the third floor, new corridors, new Congressional and Presidential Suites, and a new supper club called the Glass Hat. Escalators and another ballroom were added in the 1960s.

Rumors claim Al Capone once owned the hotel,but there is no proof of that.Others claim he played cards there. What does seem to be true is that Jake “Greasy Thumb” Gusik phoned Capone in Palm Island, Florida, in regards to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre from a phone at the Congress Plaza. During all its earlier decades, the Congress Plaza came to be known as the "Home of Presidents." Those presidents include Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, William McKinley, Grover Cleveland and Richard Nixon. Political conventions were hosted here and as a matter-of-fact, the nickname "Bull Moose" for Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party was coined here. The hotel became the headquarters for the Democrat Party and President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. In 1952, the Republican Credentials Committee broadcast from the Gold Room via television. In 1971, nearly 3,000 people packed the Great Hall when President Richard Nixon addressed the Midwest Chapters of the AARP and National Retired Teachers Association.

Today, the Congress Plaza features 871 guest rooms and several suites. The lobby features beautiful mosaic tile by Tiffany and Co., along with gorgeous chandeliers. The hotel also features ghosts. Some claim that this is the most haunted hotel in Chicago. Could its tragic past associated with many suicides, be part of the reason for its notorious reputation? James Kennedy was a man from New York who came to the hotel in May of 1910. He checked into his room and then strangely cut all the dry cleaning identification tags out of his clothes and burned his documents. He then walked across to the lake and shot himself. That same year, an insurance salesman named Andrew Mack visited a friend who was staying at the hotel. He then left and walked to the lake and drowned himself. In 1916, mining investor Morse Davis and his wife attempted suicide in their Congress Plaza hotel room by taking cyanide. His wife survived, but later tried to throw herself out of a third story window at St. Mary's Mission. A salesman committed suicide by throwing himself down an elevator shaft. Another man hung himself on a cupboard hook in his room and a drifter jumped off the roof of the north tower. 

There are many rooms that reputedly have spirits hanging around in the afterlife. The most notorious of these is Room 441. This room hosts full-bodied apparitions. Cold spots and disembodied whispers have been experienced and even more startling are reports that items have launched themselves across the room. Could this room be the inspiration for Stephen King's story "1408?" Other rooms that could be candidates as inspiration for "1408" are Room 905, where constant phone static is experienced, Room 474 where the channels on the television are constantly changed and Room 759 where an unseen spirit pulls the door shut when people try to enter. There are those that would argue that Room 441 is not the most haunted in the hotel. That prize is said to really belong to an unnamed room on the twelfth floor. The haunting here was so horrifying that the hotel managers decided it would be best to not only not rent out the room, but to seal it up forever. The door was removed and replaced with a wall and covered over in wallpaper. Many claim that it is this room that is featured in the story and movie about a young man who convinces the hotel's manager to let him stay in the haunted room that was said to cause another guest to commit suicide.

One floor above, people claim to hear groans near the elevator. There are at least two people that are believed to have fallen down the elevator shaft. The Gold Room is popular for weddings, but if you chance having your nuptials hosted in this room, you just might end up with something missing in your wedding photos. Specifically, members of your wedding party or family who try to join you in those pictures. Final photos will have spaces in the pictures that are blank where someone had been standing. It's a weird phenomenon that seems to remove the living from pictures. This generally happens in any pictures taken near the grand piano in the Gold Room. Could it be that a spirit blocks the person in the picture? Could that spirit belong to a construction worker? There is a legend that a worker was walled in the drywall somehow during construction. The remnants of this can be seen in the 'hand of mystery' in the closets behind the balcony in the Gold Room.

The Florentine Room was where the roller skating rink used to be and there is a residual haunting here that features the sounds from that past time of roller skates moving across the floor, the ominous piping of organ music and the sounds of laughter and disembodied voices. The North Tower is host to the spirits of a mother and her children. Apparently, she was so depressed that she decided to commit suicide by jumping from a balcony on the North Tower, but she didn't want to leave her children behind, so she tossed them from the balcony before she jumped herself. Most often, only the apparition of one of the boys is seen.

It seems as though all common areas of the hotel have some kind of unexplained phenomenon happening. Objects throw themselves about, cold spots are felt and there are apparitions seen as well. Most of these occurrences happen at night. Some wonder if these could be the work of a ghost that has become famous at the hotel and that is Peg Leg Johnny. Johnny was a disabled homeless man who met his final fate at the hotel. He was killed here and now seems doomed to wander the halls, particularly in the south tower of the hotel. Whenever he is seen, he mysteriously vanishes before he can be approached. The apparition has only one leg.

TwistedElegance25 wrote on TripAdvisor in 2009:

"I stayed there on a company trip so didn't actually pick this hotel. All I know is it was definitely haunted. I was laying on my bed and the curtain moved to the side as if somebody was peeking at me. Then my friend said she heard someone whistling in our room when she was in the bathroom. She looked out and nobody was in there...it happened 3 times. I had NO idea this hotel was even haunted until I told my friend about it and he looked the hotel up for me. He sent me the link about it...this hotel is one of the most haunted hotels in Chicago! I wish I had known this before I stayed there! The hallways look like the hallways from that movie 'The Shinning.' The bed was super uncomfortable...the room was absolutely freezing! It was so hot out too. I had to ask the bell guy for a lot of extra blankets and my friend and I were still freezing!!!! So I then asked them how to turn the heater on and they said they only turn on the hotel heater during the winter time. He came back to our room and felt how cold it was so then searched the hotel for a portable heater for us. thank God he found one....it somewhat helped a little. The hotel seemed really pretty downstairs...but the rooms I didn't like very much at all. I felt like I was staying in an old Grandmas room. Anyways...if you guys like ghost...then yeah sure...stay at this hotel, lol."

 Matthew Hirons said:

 "It's an outdated hotel, which I found charming...ish. Think Wes Andersen movie.  Definitely helps with the creep vibe.  The location is great, right across from Buckingham Fountain. The Stephen King short story "1408" was based on the hotel, but the movie was not filmed there. There have been some pretty famous guests there. It's true that Matthew Hirons was seen checking in there. I did some walking around and took some recordings in the hallway around the infamous Room 441. I spent some time there and caught nothing. I didn't see anything. However, I did catch two ladies that had done the same as me and they said they saw a man through the divider door window to the next hallways and then he was just gone. Does this mean it's not haunted? Who knows. I think that if you really want to get to the heart of that answer, you have to book 441 and stay focused on it. If you want a fair priced hotel downtown with a lure of haunting, than it will be worth staying there."

 Kristin Swintek said:

"I absolutely love the Congress Hotel! It might not be one of the most luxurious hotels in Downtown Chicago, but it is beautiful, very affordable and in an excellent location. It's right on the famous Michigan Avenue across the street from Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain. In walking distance to the Art Institute (the art museum that Ferris, Sloan and Cameron go to in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off), very close to the Museum Campus which includes The Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum of Natural History, and the Adler Planetarium and you can see Lake Michigan if you have a room facing Michigan Ave. I haven't stayed there in over 10 years, and from a quick look at the website, it appears the rooms have been renovated since I was there last in probably 2005. I remember there being claw foot tubs in the bathroom which appear to be gone now. Those were so neat.

My first visit to the Congress Plaza Hotel was during my college orientation week. I attended Columbia College Chicago with is located a block south of the hotel and they had deals for families coming in for orientation. My parents and I stayed in a "Family Suite" which included one large room with two queen beds and a smaller bedroom with one Queen bed off which was the bathroom. We surmised that the larger room was probably once used as a parlor or sitting room with the bedroom off of the parlor. My mom and I came down to the hotel early in the day and my dad was going to meet us there later after work. We weren't sure what our schedule would be like with the orientation so we told the front desk to hold my Dad's room key so he could pick it up and let himself into our room when he arrived.

Orientation day was done earlier then expected and decided to head back to the hotel to cool off from the hot summer day. My mom and I were relaxing together in the smaller bedroom and we read the hotel booklet with information and the history of the hotel. We were reading about all the famous people who had stayed there including former US Presidents and there were pictures of what the hotel looked like in the 30's and 40's. Then there was a section on some of the hauntings around the hotel. As we are reading this particular section, we were startled by the sound of the door opening. We jumped and screamed. It was just my Dad who had decided to leave work a little early and surprise us. He came in and was equally startled by our reaction and said "What heck is the matter with you two?" We told him what we were just reading and he agreed that an old hotel like that was surely haunted and we all had a good laugh.

We didn't have anything really definitive happen while we were there. I was sleeping alone in the larger room by myself. One of the nights I woke up and felt like something was staring at me in the middle of the night. I turned around to look into the dark room, praying that I wouldn't see anything. I found the room empty but still had the unsettling feeling. I pulled the blankets over my head, squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself to go back to sleep, hoping I wasn't going to have nightmares. It may have just been an overactive imagination, knowing that I was in a haunted hotel. I've stayed there one other time with my Husband back when were dating for a little staycation in the city. I would really like to go back soon and see if anything spooky happens. It's such a wonderful place."

Ursula Bielski, Founder of Chicago Hauntings Tours, wrote, "Since 1989, I have participated in more than 3 dozen investigations of the Congress Plaza, documenting no fewer than 47 distinctively haunted rooms and at least two ballrooms, as well as common areas such as employee workrooms and public guest areas.  The sheer variety of phenomena reported and experienced at this massive structure is mind-boggling.  Truly, there seems to be no end to the historic tragedy or of its supernatural manifestations."

Are the spirits of former guests and employees still walking the corridors of this century old hotel? Is the Congress Plaza Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 184 - Delta Bessborough Hotel

 
Moment in Oddity - Jean Hilliard Frozen and Lives
(Suggested by: Lisa Lauren Schmidt)

Jean Hilliard was 19 years old and living in Lengby, Minnesota when something incredible happened to her. She was driving to meet up with her neighbor when her car skidded off the ice covered road. It was the coldest it had been for some time with temperatures of twenty-five degrees below zero and Jean Hilliard was literally frozen solid as she walked for help. Her neighbor discovered her and rushed her to the hospital. Her arms were so frozen, they were unmovable. Ice clung to her in places and the nurses claimed that touching her skin was like touching ice in a freezer. Her face was white and had the look of death and there was not much hope that she would be revived. Besides frost bite, another hazard of being frozen is that water expands when frozen. It was believed that there was damage on a microscpic level, including severe brain damage. Jean awoke from her coma with no major affects of having been frozen solid like a block of ice. She was released from the hospital after a month. This is considered an unexplained medical miracle and that, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The Outlaw Belle Starr Killed in Oklahoma

In the month of February, on the 3rd, in 1889, the outlaw Belle Starr was killed in Oklahoma with two shotgun blasts to the back. Starr was known as the "Bandit Queen." She started out with a relatively normal life being born into a middle class family on a farm in Carthage, Missouri. The Civil War changed all that when her father's innkeeping business was ruined and her brother Edwin lost his life in the war. The family moved to Texas and Belle met a string of bad men. She married one of them named Jim Reed and became his partner in crime, rustling cattle and stealing money. This lasted for five years and then Reed was killed in 1874 by a member of his own gang. Belle took off for the Oklahoma Indian Territory and met a Cherokee outlaw named Sam Starr who became her common law husband. The two continued their criminal ways and were arrested in 1883, both serving five months for horse theft. In 1886, Sam Starr was killed in a gunfight and Belle was alone again. She then met her finally partner in crime and love, a Creek named Jim July. He was later arrested and sent tp Fort Smith for punishment for his crimes. Belle accompanied him part of the way and then decided to return home. She was ambushed on the way and fatally shot in the back by two shotgun blasts. The murderer was never found and the case remains unsolved.

Delta Bessborough Hotel (Suggested by Corianne Wilson)

The castle-like Delta Bessborough Hotel is a four star, ten-story hotel located in downtown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Today it is owned by Marriott, but this historic hotel dates back to 1928 when it was built by the Canadian National Railway. Railway hotels were built all across Canada with many of them sharing the same architecture. Many locals refer to the Bessborough as "The Bess" and many of them have tales of hauntings that take place in the hotel. There seems to be several spirits hanging around The Bess in the afterlife. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Delta Bessborough Hotel.

Saskatoon is considered Saskatchewan's great crossroads. The Cree tribe lived here and the name  Saskatoon is derived for the Cree word for the berry that is native to the region, misâskwatômina. A group of Toronto Methodists formed the Temperance Colonization Society and they believed the Saskatoon area would be a great place to set up a dry community. They relocated there in 1882, led by John Nielsen Lake. The railway was not completed to Saskatoon, so they took it to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and then rode horse drawn carts the rest of the way. There were 3,100 settlers. Lake is considered the founder of Saskatoon for this reason. The temperance society folded within ten years. Not many new settlers wanted to come to the area and internal fighting led to the demise.

The railway finally arrived in 1901 and another settlement set up on the west side of the South Saskatchewan River near the railway station. This settlement would incorporate and keep the name Saskatoon and the original village was changed to Nutana. A third settlement named Riverdale formed on the west side of the railroad tracks. These three settlements decided to become one city and they all eventually became Saskatoon in 1906. The city grew rapidly and by 1911, the population had more than doubled.

Canadian Pacific Railway was founded in 1881 with the purpose of connecting interior towns to each other and to the coasts. A railway had already been under construction, but it was way behind schedule and running out of money. A group of Scottish Canadian businessmen formed the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to fix the issues and construction took off. By 1885, the last spike in the transcontinental railway was driven into the ground. With the railway came a need for lodgings and this became the advent of railway hotels in Canada. The first one was built in Montreal in 1878 and named the Windsor Hotel. The Canadian Pacific Railway opened its first hotel in 1888 in Vancouver. The hotels were meant to be luxurious and were mainly built in a chateau style of architecture. It is a style considered distinctly Canadian with turrets and Scottish baronial elements.

Several smaller railways were struggling and the government incorporated them together into the Canadian National Railway in 1919. The Grand Trunk Railway was another railway rolled into this company. This rival company to the Canadian Pacific Railway also built railway hotels, which was something the Grand Trunk Railway had been doing before it was amalgamated. The Saskatoon business community lobbied the Canadian National Railway to build a railway hotel in Saskatoon. At the time, Sir Henry Thorton was president of the Canadian National Railway. On December 31, 1928, he announced that they would build a hotel in Saskatoon designed by Archibald and Schofield of Montreal. John Archibald was a Scottish immigrant and John Schofield was an immigrant from Ireland. The hotel was designed to resemble a Bavarian castle. Construction began in the frozen month of February and thus a steam thawer and gasoline excavator were required. The hotel was built from Tyndall stone, tile and bricks all made in Canada. The hotel was completed in 1932 with 225 rooms.

While construction was being done, the Great Depression swept across the world and travel was hit hard. While the hotel was ready to go in 1932, it didn't officially open until December 10, 1935. The first guest was Horace N. Stovin. The hotel was named Bessborough after Sir Vere Ponsonby who was the 9th Earl of Bessborough and at the time, the 14th Governor General of Canada. He and the Countess visited the hotel while it was being built. In 1972, the Bess traded hands and was bought by Donald, Dick, and Marc Baltzan. Ten years later the Canadian Pacific Hotels purchased
Canadian National Hotels and the Bess was placed under CP Hotels' subsidiary Delta Hotels during the 1990s, which is where the Delta part of its name comes from. Fairmont Hotels and Resorts bought CP Hotels and Delta Hotels in 1999. That year a $9 million renovation was begun on the hotel and it was restored to much of its original historic elegance. Another renovation came in 2003. Today, the Bess is owned by Marriott and features several meeting and conference rooms and is surrounded by five acres of Elizabethan gardens.

More than just guests stay at the Bess. It is reputedly quite haunted and has three paranormal hotspots. The Adam Ballroom is 4,024 square feet and a favorite venue for weddings and receptions. It is located on the Convention Floor level. It is this ballroom and this level that is reputedly haunted by an apparition that is wearing a gray suit and fedora. He appears full-bodied and has even said, "Hello" to passersby. Guests will mention to employees that they saw a man wearing a dated suit just hanging around without any purpose. Employees are unable to find the man and now generally explain that the guests may have seen a ghost. He is thought to be a former employee of the hotel, more than likely a manager based on the way he is dressed and the actions that led to his death. There were two men drunk in the hotel, causing quite the ruckus. He asked the men to quiet down or leave the hotel and their response was to pick him up and hurl him over the balcony. He fell at least seven stories and reputedly, there is still a crack on the floor where he hit.

One man who claims to have seen this ghost was the co-founder of Paranormal Saskatchewan, Colin Tranborg. He also was told by a witness that they saw this man looking at them through the window of a storage room, which would be impossible because as Colin put it, "There is no way he could have been out there because he would have fallen to his death." There are those that claim the man in the gray suit is someone different than the man wearing the gray fedora. Some guests and staff say they have seen a figure moving through the Terrace Lounge that is now a banquet room. Hotel guests used to congregate in the lounge to send letters, read the paper and visit. The man in the fedora is said to wander the room looking for his friends.

The third floor is the next haunted hotspot. The apparition that is seen here is said to be terrifying. The spirit resembles a very small woman whom looks tired and depressed. Her hair and clothing is a mess. As long as people ignore the spirit, she seems to keep to herself. But if someone acknowledges her, she runs up to the person and screams in their face before she suddenly disappears.   
  
The stairwell is said to be haunted. This haunting features the spirits of several children. People claim that it sounds like they are playing in the stairwell. They ignore the guests, so this could just be a residual haunting. It is believed that they were killed at the hotel somehow, but there is no story to go with this. Colin said he has been told that children have been seen roaming and playing in the corridors.

There is also a story about a bellman haunting a stairwell according to Stefan Deprez, sales/marketing director for the Delta Bessborough. Deprez shared a story he was told by an employee, "Someone took a picture of him coming down one of the stairs, and when they developed the picture there was this apparition in behind him and he swears to this day it was a ghost."Apparently, the bellman was running with luggage down the stairwell and he tripped and tumbled to his death. There is a section of broken marble on one of the staircases that people claim is where he fell. The apparition appears on this very spot.

Many people have come through the Bess in her decades of service. Is it possible that some of those guests and some of the employees have continued to stay on in the afterlife? Is the Delta Bessborough Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 136 - Hotel Jeffery

 
Moment in Oddity - The Graves of Charlie Silver
Suggested by Tammie McCarroll-Burroughs

The little community of Kona in North Carolina was the scene of a horrific crime in 1831. The details surrounding the murder of Charlie Silver has led to an unusual circumstance at the Kona Baptist Church Cemetery. Charlie was married to Frankie in 1830. They were young and seemed perfect for each other. But things went horribly wrong on December 2nd in 1831. Charlie had gone out to get some liquor for Christmas. When he got back home to Frankie and their 13-month-old daughter, he was a bit tipsy from imbibing while riding home. No one knows for sure exactly what happened next, but a fight ensues with Charlie grabbing a shotgun and threatening to kill Frankie and possibly their daughter. Frankie picks up an axe and uses it, killing Charlie. Now she was left with having to cover-up the murder. She hacked his body up and attempted to burn it in the cabin fireplace. A neighbor became suspicious and he visited the cabin when Frankie was away. He found greasy ashes in the fireplace, along with bone. He found a pool of blood beneath the floorboards as well. Charlie's torso and head were outside the cabin. Frankie was indicted for murder because she did not claim that she was defending herself, but rather just went with not guilty. Frankie was sentenced to death, but the community put out a lot of pressure for her to be pardoned. The execution went through in the end. Now the unusual circumstance is that people who visit the graveyard find a large granite stone with Charlie Silver's name on it, but that is not where Charlie was buried. Three natural stones rising behind the granite stone mark spots where Charlie was buried. You see, Charlie was not buried all at once. As they found bits and pieces of him, a new burial was done. Burying someone's body in separate places with individual markers certainly seems rather odd!

This Day in History - Colonists Reach Roanoke Island
by: April Rogers-Krick

On this day, July 13th, in 1584, a group of 108 English colonists reached Roanoke Island looking to settle in an unknown land. The expedition was funded by Sir Walter Raleigh and approved by Queen Elizabeth I, who had issued a charter allowing Raleigh to “discover, search, find out and view such remote heathen and barbarous lands, countries, and territories…to have, hold, occupy and enjoy.” Raleigh did not make the trip with the colonists. Under the commands of Phillip Amada and Arthur Barlowe, two ships sailed from England on April 27, 1584 and landed on the coast of North Carolina on July 13, 1584. This landing marked the first time the English flag waved in the New World. But this expedition would prove to be unsuccessful. The colonists were unable to establish a good rapport with the native peoples of the New World and lacked proper provisions for permanent settlement. The colonists would eventually return to England to prepare for another trip the following year. Sir Walter Raleigh reported the discovery of Roanoke Island to Queen Elizabeth I and the new territory was named Virginia, in honor of the Virgin Queen.

Hotel Jeffery (Suggested by listener Scott Stuller, Research Assistant Kristin Swintek)

Along the most scenic route to Yosemite National Park is the city of Coulterville, which is home to the historic Hotel Jeffery. The Magnolia Saloon that is part of the hotel is one of the only saloons in America that still has the traditional bat-wing doors and it is the oldest working saloon in California. The hotel has hosted the famous, but it also hosts some unique guests. The hotel is rumored to be haunted by 17 individual spirits and the unnerving part is that the hotel claims that most of the spirits are not malevolent, meaning that some are. Join us for the history and hauntings of Hotel Jeffery!

Coulterville, California is a very small mining town located in Mariposa County on Maxwell Creek. The town was settled by George W. Coulter in 1850 and he opened a tent store serving miners working in the Maxwell, Boneyard and Black creeks. The settlement was originally called Banderita (which is spanish for “Little Flag”) for the flag flying over the store. In 1853, a post office was established as Maxwell Creek and changed to Coulter a year later. The entire town is considered a historic landmark. During the Gold Rush, the town was a major gold mining and supply center. At that time, the town had an estimated population of 5,000 people. Coulter was very diverse with nine nationalities and it even included it’s own “Chinatown.” *Fun fact: Buffalo Bill Cody's brother Nelson was an agent at the Wells Fargo here in 1870.*

The town had its share of tragedy. In 1862, a major flood destroyed or damaged buildings along the creek. The element of fire would be the next destructive force. A large portion of the town was burned in three separate fires, each oddly occurring exactly 20 years apart starting in 1859, with the next in 1879 and the final one in 1899. In its heyday, the town boasted 25 saloons and 10 hotels. In the late 1800s, the town became a popular stop for tourists on their way to Yosemite National Park. In fact, the first paved road into Yosemite ran through Coulterville. Today, the town is not quite as bustling as it once was. The 2010 United States Census reported a population of only 200 people.

The building that would become The Hotel Jeffery was built in the 1840s by Mexicans and opened as a store. The walls were built from clay and rock and measured 30 inches thick. There was a Fandango Hall built on the upper floor. (We, of course, had no idea what Fandango was and the rabbit hole was interesting. First, you get the movie ticket selling website and then I found a ballroom dancer turned wrestler.) Fandango is a lively folk dance designed for couples that was created in Spain. It began in the 18th century. The dance is accompanied by guitar, castanets and hand clapping and can be danced by either male and female or couples or by two males who use it as a type of stand-off, mimicing each other's moves and trying to best each other. It is quite festive and the tempo increases as the songs and dancing continue. The Fandango made it into all of the Spanish colonies and each developed their own flair. *Fun fact: The Philippines being a Spanish colony had a Fandango dance that did not use castanets, but rather they carried glasses with candles in them that they occasionally swung around in the air.*

George Jeffery bought the building in 1851 and turned it into a hotel for stagecoach passengers and Gold-Rush era miners. The hotel took its name from him. Some famous guests include President Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson and even Queen Elizabeth II. It is considered a historical landmark and was voted one of the most authentic western towns in the United States. It is located 28 miles from Yosemite National Park, and for many years has attracted visitors on their way to the National Park. The Oakland Tribune reported in 1941 that an old oak tree was located across the street from the hotel and that it was called "Hangman's Tree." Leon Ruiz was hung here in 1856 for killing two Chinese miners and robbing them. The tree was advertised as the business office of the necktie party set.

Up until the 1970s, the hotel had been owned by three generations of the same family. The Santa Ana Register reported in 1976 that the Magnolia Saloon had an antique no trespassing sing that read, "Trespassers will be persecuted to the full extent of two mongrel dogs which never was sociable to strangers and my double-barrelled shotgun which ain't loaded with sofa pillars. Derned if I ain't getting tired of the hell raisin' on my place."

This is not a luxury hotel by any means. The hotel has 20 rooms, some with their own bathroom, and others share a bathroom in the hall on the 3rd floor. The rooms also do not contain as many modern amenities as most hotels such as televisions or telephones. There is a TV room on the second floor where guests can visit and phone calls can be made at the front desk. Forrest Monk and Sara Zahn bought the hotel and have been trying to return it to its former glory. The rooms have been furnished with antique lights and chairs and crank telephones have been installed that still work. The Magnolia Saloon was restored and the original 40 ft. wooden bar and bar back was refinished. There are still bullet holes in the wall of the saloon, so we would surmise that people died here in gunfights. Dining options at the hotel include The Victoria Room and the Courtyard. On Saturdays, actors stage a western-style gun battle in the saloon.

The building caught fire on November 14, 2014, from “some kind of electrical problem” according to an article in The Modesto Bee. In another article from the Modesto Bee in March of 2015, owner Sara Zahn was working to repair damage to the building while updating some of the rooms and adding bathrooms, so the saloon could be opened. We're not certain on the current state of the hotel, but it does not seem to be open for business yet since the fire damage was so extensive. The Hotel Jeffrey is the main source of commerce and entertain for the current residents of Coulterville. Scott mentioned in his email that the hotel was being rebuilt and that the recent fire in the kitchen was mysterious.

Unlike many hotels who try not to advertise their paranormal activity, the Hotel Jeffery has an entire section of their website dedicated to their ghosts. The hotel claims to be home to 17 spirits and “ghost detecting kits” are available for guests to do a little investigating of their own. According to an article in the Union Democrat, the kit contains an EMF detector, motions sensors, and recording devices.

The hotel website boasts many accounts of guests and the owners strange happenings while staying or working in the hotel:

“Several months ago I was working in the registration office and around 2:00am I got up to lock the doors to the kitchen and outside through the dining room before going to sleep. All was well. In the morning, around 6:00am I went through the registration office to go to the kitchen. This is the route I always take in the morning as it is the only way to unlock everything. When I went through the dining room...right in the middle of my path was the cello, propped up facing me. The cello normally rests off to the side next to the piano about 20 feet on the other side of the room. No one had unlocked the doors between 2-6am.”

A jilted lover hung herself in Room 22 in the late 1800s. A guest staying in that room took a picture of a shadow on the door that he claims contains the shadow of an unknown person. He claims the shadow is not his own and there was no one else on the floor at the time. A work crew staying at the hotel while working on a nearby road had some startling experiences they reported. A female member of the crew was staying in room 19 and she awoke in the middle of the night to find the door to the room wide open. She got up to close the door and upon returning to bed, the blanket and sheet were pulling away from her. She phoned her boss stating that she was too afraid to stay in the room, and asked if she could stay with her boss in room 15. On her way down the hall to her boss’ room, all the doors to the rooms began slamming shut one after another. This was recounted by the woman’s boss as the guest in room 19 was too afraid to speak of the experience and refused to stay another night in the hotel.

Activity in Room 6 had steadily increased in the months after the hotel had been renovated. A man staying in Room 6 with his dog, awoke in the night when his dog began barking. The man felt as though he had been burned on his face and indeed when he awoke the next morning, there was a mark on his face, as if he had been punched. Another guest in Room 6 heard voices “right next to him” and would not come back.

Other guests claim to have heard running down the hallways and have complained that they hear children running up and down the hallways during the night, when in fact no children had been staying at the hotel. A group of paranormal investigators set up equipment in the Cedar Room. One of the investigator felt scratches on his back, and found marks left on his skin upon lifting his shirt. The owners of the hotel have heard disembodied footsteps in the Cedar Room. The owner states that “the room gives me the creeps and I won’t go in it by myself if the lights are not on.”

HPI Paranormal Investigators paid a visit to the hotel on Saturday, April 21, 2012. They reported that camera batteries quickly drained and “dead” compasses suddenly came to life and behaved strangely. They interviewed employees and a dishwasher told them that the stove burners turn themselves off and on and the saloon doors swing on their own. Guests told the investigators that they often smell cigar smoke when no one in the bar or around the hotel is smoking any cigars or they might catch a whiff of perfume drifting by from an unseen entity. Locals recounted the legend of the “Red Eyed Roof Crawler” who is a dark figure that walks on all fours and sports red glowing eyes. This “creature” has been seen on the roof of the hotel and usually appears during a full moon. Many locals claim to have seen the Red Eyed Roof Crawler but the paranormal group did not encounter any unusual creatures during their stay.

The group conducted a seance and during that a shadow person was seen, orbs were seen floating around the room via night vision googles, an EVP of a male voice was recorded although the words are not clear and one investigator was scratched on the back. Some of the investigators also recorded EVPs in their rooms. When they asked 'Is anyone here?', they would receive a voice confirming 'Yes.'"

Our listener Scott told us, "I live in this area and once went into the hotel to take a look around.  A women greeted me upon entering and said, 'Yes this hotel is haunted and you came in to take a look for yourself.  Go ahead look, but don't go in any room with the door closed at you will disturb guests.' I didn't ask to look around and didn't know the place had a reputation for being haunted.  I guess enough people have gone in to ask to look around that she gives this greeting to everyone."

From TripAdvisor:

"The hotel is a remarkable place! Since we absolutely LOVE history, it was wonderful staying in a place over 150 years old. It was clean, upkept, and the food was delicious! However, I experienced something I've NEVER experienced before...not thinking too much that the hotel could be haunted...because I am very much a skeptic regarding those things. Yet, here is my story...

It was a Thursday evening when my family and I were eating dinner in the saloon. Thunder and lightning began while we were talking with one of the owners, so he gave us 3 little laterns just in case the electricity would be lost. Once in our room we settled to watch a movie. Our room was at the end of the hall (8 & 9) with a sitting room (tv-dvd player) between the rooms. This room is small, so I just laid across the width of my bed in room 8 watching the movie while my husband and children sat on the satee in the small sitting room. While watching the movie, I heard the door handle turn and people talking (murmering) but couldn't make out what was being said--so I looked at the door -- the handle was moving as if someone was outside the door turning it to come in. (They couldn't because our door was locked). I tiptoed to the door to see who might be outside--through the eye piece I saw a woman (over to the left) wearing an 1800's dress with a nursing cap dabbing the forehead of an older man (who looked to be bald with light hair around the edge of his head). Thinking it was a trick--I quickly and quietly got my husband to see this also. As I was quietly approaching the door eye look out again--they were still there. Moving back for my husband to see--he peeked through the door. He didn't see a thing. Again, thinking this was a joke played on us...we opened the door--no one was out in the hall. I cannot explain what I saw--but, am I still a skeptic? Not as much as I was when we first came to the hotel."

Coulterville is a very historic town holding on to its old west roots. Is it holding on to spirits from that bygone era? Do the spirits of previous guests still walk the halls of the hotel in the afterlife? Is Hotel Jeffery haunted? That is for you to decide!


Show Notes:
www.hoteljeffery.com/about-us

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulterville,_California

http://www.westernmininghistory.com/towns/california/coulterville

Grimm, M., & Grimm, T. (1990, January 21). Coulterville Streets Lined with History. Los Angeles Times.

Jardine, J. (2014, November 12). Coulterville's historic Jeffery Hotel badly damaged by fire, but owner confident it will rise once more. The Modesto Bee. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from http://www.modbee.com/

Jardine, J. (2015, March 9). Historic Hotel Jeffery making progress after fire. The Modesto Bee. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from http://www.modbee.com/

Cambell, R. (2015, August 23). Hotel Jeffery reopens in 1800s style. The Union Democrat. Retrieved July 5, 2016, from http://www.uniondemocrat.com/csp/mediapool/sites/UnionDemocrat/LocalNews/story.csp?cid=3789975&sid=753&fid=151

http://www.sierranevadageotourism.org/content/coulterville/sie313ce510b3690ddc9

HGB Podcast, Ep. 83 - Emily Morgan Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Charlie Chaplin's Body Stolen

Charlie Chaplin was a star of the silent film era in old Hollywood. He is best known for his role as The Tramp in which he donned a bowler hat, square mustache that was hitler-esque, a cane, over-sized shoes and a quirky little walk. His acting career spanned 77 years. He died on Christmas Day in 1977 and was buried in the hills above Lake Geneva in Switzerland in the village of Corsier. He would not be at rest for long. In March of the following year, two grave robbers disinterred the coffin and the body of Charlie Chaplin. The grave robbers were a Polish man named Roman Wardas and a Bulgarian named Gantscho Ganev. They took the coffin and buried it in a field a mile from the Chaplin home. After all, hoisting a coffin and a body around would be a bit conspicuous. The men then demanded 400,000 pounds for the return of the body. Charlie's widow refused to pay claiming that Charlie would find the situation ridiculous. The police put surveillance on 200 phone banks in the area and tapped the Chaplin house's phones. It took 11 weeks, but they finally found the criminals and recovered Charlie's coffin and body. He was reburied, but this time in a coffin of concrete. Charlie no doubt would have found this footnote to his life quite odd.

This Day in History - Boss Tweed Convicted

On this day, November 19th, in 1873, William Tweed, also known as Boss Tweed, was convicted of 204 counts of defrauding New York City out of $6 million. Boss Tweed was a politician who had risen to the level where he was considered the boss of Tammany Hall. Tammany Hall was basically the Democratic powerhouse in New York. It was an organization that played a major role in politics in New York, both the city and the state. Boss Tweed was the third largest landowner in New York and had been elected to the House of Representatives. At the time that he served as boss of Tammany Hall, he was on the New York County Board of Supervisors. Boss Tweed ushered in a time of political corruption. He installed friends to high places and used construction projects as payoffs and an opportunity to make big profits. The Orange Riot of 1871 started the downfall for Boss Tweed. Newspapers started writing exposes after getting insider information after Tweed's supposed friends started talking. It was discovered that Tweed had defrauded the city and he was put on trial for 220 counts, finally being convicted on 204 of them. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The sentence was later changed to one year. After his release, the city filed a civil lawsuit. Tweed couldn't pay the $3 million in bail, so he was locked up again. He escaped during a home visit and ran away to Spain where he worked as a seaman. He was discovered and returned to America. He made a deal that he would tell all about the inner workings of Tammany Hall is he would be freed. An agreement was reached and Tweed told everything. The Governor changed his mind on the deal and Tweed was returned to jail where he died of pneumonia.

Emily Morgan Hotel

The city of San Antonio is beautiful. It is home to the infamous Alamo. And right next to the Alamo sits the Emily Morgan Hotel. The hotel is considered the official hotel of the Alamo. It was once a state of the art medical facility. Today it is a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel that offers luxurious accommodations in a beautiful historic building. Those accommodations offer more than just luxuries. There are reportedly ghosts in this building. Some believe that the hotel is far more haunted than even the Alamo, where so many more people died. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Emily Morgan Hotel.

San Antonio is the third largest city in Texas and estimated to be the seventh largest city in America. This city is the heart of Texan independence. The Battle of the Alamo was fought here. The city was named for Saint Anthony of Padua. When Europeans first arrived, the Payaya Indians were in the area and called it Yanaguana, meaning refreshing waters. The San Antonio River is sometimes still referred to by that name given it originally by the Native Americans. Spanish Franciscans leading military expeditions were the first to arrive here. Missions were built throughout the area and many still stand today.

The Emily Morgan Hotel got its start as a medical facility in 1924. The building was designed by the architect Ralph Cameron and developed by JM Nix. It was built in the Gothic Revival style with cast iron accents. The roof is copper with ribs made of wood. A distinct tower is located at one of the building's triangular shaped corners and gargoyles line the building. The gargoyles each depict different medical ailments. The building had thirteen stories and was called the Medical Arts Building. Inside were medical offices, a hospital and crematorium. In 1976, the building was converted into an office complex and the following year it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1984, the building was remodeled and opened as a hotel. It was given the name "The Emily Morgan Hotel" and it was named for a special woman.

Emily D. West is a folk hero in Texas. She was born some time in 1815 in New Haven, Connecticut. Emily was a free woman of color, but she would not really remain free. In 1835, a man by the name of James Morgan took Emily on as an indentured servant and she was employed at one of his hotels in Morgan Point, Texas called the New Washington Association's Hotel. On April 16, 1836, a Mexican calvary stormed the hotel in search of the President of the Texas Republic, David Burnet. Burnet had already left, so the calvary kidnapped the black servants at the hotel, including Emily. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna arrived and helped his troops loot and then burn the hotel. He then decided to go after Sam Houston and his troops. On April 21st, the Texans charged the Mexican camp and General Santa Anna was caught with his pants down. Literally. Legend says that the General was in a compromising position in his tent with none other than Emily West. And even though Emily did not plan it this way, she is given credit for helping to defeat the Mexican army.

William Bollaert was an Englishman who was traveling through Texas when he met up with Sam Houston. He wrote the following about what he was told by Houston at that meeting: "I [Bollaert] left Galveston with a friend for a trip to the Trinity River by land (for observations to Geographical Society). Buffalo Bayou may be compared to a deep canal, its shores thickly wooded with Pine and the Magnolias in flower.  We gazed with some interest on the battle field of San Jacinto. The following is a copy of an unpublished letter written by G’l [i.e., General] Houston to a friend after this extraordinary battle: “The Battle of San Jacinto was probably lost to the Mexicans,owing to the influence of a Mulatta girl (Emily) belonging to Col. Morgan who was closeted in the tent with g’l [i.e., General] Santana, at the time the cry was made, ‘The Enemy! They come! They come!' and detained Santana so long, that order could not be restored readily again.”

Was the story true? It has grown and been added to through the years, just like urban legends. Many have claimed that the song "Yellow Rose of Texas" was written about Emily. For our episode, it's not really important whether Emily helped in the defeat of Santa Anna or not. What is important is that Texans believe she did. She really did live. And for that reason, the hotel was named The Emily Morgan. They used her employer's surname rather than her own as was the custom to do with servants.

The Emily Morgan was remodeled extensively in 2012 and joined the Hilton family of hotels under the DoubeTree branch. The rooms are luxurious and modern. No one would imagine that this was once a hospital where people died. And others have died here in more recent time. In April of 2008, Juan Ignacio Gutierrez stabbed a woman named Elvira Hernandez-Moreno to death with a steak knife. Later that same year, Justin Cardenas came out of a room on the 14th floor with blood on his shirt and hands. Cardenas had rented the room with a friend who brought a gun. The friend emptied the gun of its clip, but forgot that a bullet was in the chamber. He held the gun to his temple and told Justin to pull the trigger. It fired and killed the man. 

The Emily Morgan Hotel sits in an area that is prime territory for hauntings. After all, the Alamo is right next door. Employees and guests report many unexplained happenings. The televisions and lights turn off and on without assistance. The phones ring in the middle of the night with no operator or anyone on the other end. And being situated next to the Alamo means sightings of soldiers in military garb are seen outside. Six hundred soldiers lost their lives here and their bodied were burned.

And there is, of course, a woman in white here. People will see her and think she is real and then she suddenly disappears. A senior sales manager at the hotel once rented a room for an overnight and returned from dinner to find the bathtub full of water. She had not run the bath. There is both a woman and little girl on the third floor. This little girl has a penchant for music. She is said to wake people in the middle of the night with her humming. She sometimes asks people if they would like to sing along. One guest heard a little girl humming, "Row, row, row your boat," while she was in the restroom. When she investigated, she found no little girl anywhere. The woman on this floor is heard singing.

Shadow figures and apparitions that walk through walls are seen on the seventh floor. Wine bottles slide off tables on the ninth floor and toilet seats get banged up and down. A hospital gurney is heard being wheeled on the eleventh floor and the spirit of an elderly woman is seen weeping in a hospital gown. The twelfth floor housed surgery. The smell of alcohol is detected on this floor and unexplained noises are heard. As if surgeries are still ongoing in a residual manner. The elevators are haunted as well. People blame faulty wiring, only faulty wiring has never been found. The elevators sometimes don't stop at the floors chosen by riders. They'll just pass right on by. Sometimes they'll shoot people down to the basement where the morgue was once located and then sit there, refusing to move. KCC Big Country wrote on her HubPage about experiences she had on a stay at the hotel and one of those experiences was on the elevator.

Michelle related the following chilling tale from her stay at the hotel:

"The Emily Morgan is indeed haunted. The first weekend I stayed there I really had no expectations. I thought the hotel was fantastic when I arrived. My friend and I checked in and hopped on the elevator to get to our room so we could unpack. When we got on the elevator and hit the third floor. The elevator kept going and opened on an entirely different floor. We giggled nervously but didn't think too much about it. After a little shopping and entertainment we settled in for the night. At some point in the night I was woken up by an incredible chill and humming. I woke up to find a little girl sitting on the end of my bed. She was swinging her feet off the end of the bed and humming. When she saw I was awake she giggled and said, "Do you want to sing? Do you want to play with me?". I immediately froze and then started to cry. I was terrified. I actually couldn't even talk about it for weeks after it happened. I pulled the covers up over my head and never made it back to sleep. The following night I decided I would try to stay up later and maybe have a glass or two of wine before trying to go to bed. I again found myself waking up to a cold chill. This time I laid very still with my eyes closed and could feel someone lying next to me..almost leaning against me. I slowly opened my eyes to make sure I was awake. I could still feel someone against me and again I cried. As soon as I started to cry, the feeling left but you could still feel the cold."

 Lisa wrote about her stay at the hotel:

"I stayed at the Emily Morgan a few years ago (on 7th floor near elevator), unaware of its reputation for being haunted. The room had sliding doors to the bathroom, which I closed before getting into bed. Nothing paranormal has ever happened to me and I’m 45 years old. Later that night I was lying in bed awake and I felt a weight “sit” next to me on the bed, even felt the pressure against my leg above the knee, as if a smallish person sat down. I freaked out and said, “Please leave now!” I didn’t sleep after that but when I got up, the sliding doors were open. I won’t be staying there again, but it was a beautiful property."

Do ghostly soldiers still hang out near the Alamo? Are those who died long ago in the Medical Arts Building, still at the hospital, waiting for their surgery? Is the Emily Morgan Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Paper on Emily West: http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/lutzweiler.pdf
KCC Big Country's experience: http://hubpages.com/travel/My-Emily-Morgan-Hotel-Experience

HGB Podcast 37 - Lord Milner Hotel

Moment in Oddity - No Red Haired Wet Nurses

French doctor Francois Mauriceau wrote a book in 1688 titled "The Diseases of Women with Children." Now most people would hear that title and wonder to themselves, what kind of diseases do mothers have that non-mothers do not have. Does the birthing of children bring certain diseases? Apparently, Dr. Mauriceau thought so, but that is not surprising considering his thoughts on breast feeding. The good doctor wrote, "The necessary conditions in a good nurse are usually taken from her age, the time and manner of her labour, the good constitution of all the parts of her body, and particularly of her breasts, from the nature of her milk [and] from her good manners...She must not be red-haired, nor marked with red spots… She ought to have a sweet voice to please and rejoice the child, and likewise ought to have a clear and free pronunciation, that he may not learn an ill accent from her, as usually red-haired [women] have." The doctor went on to advise against the use of wet nurses with stinky breath or bad teeth and that the breasts "ought to be pretty big… but not big to excess” and “not flaggy and hanging”. What any of those things have to do with breast feeding, we do not know, but Dr. Mauriceau claimed that red haired women's breast milk was "hot, sharp and stinking, and also of an ill taste." How he knew this, well we'll let you imagine how he knew, but one thing is for sure: that doctor's advise on breast feeding certainly is odd.

This Day in History - The Massacre at Chios

On this day, March 31st, in 1822, the Ottoman Turks begin a massacre of the Greek people of the island of Chios. The island of Chios was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1822. The Greek people who lived there were tired of living under the Ottoman thumb even though the island was very prosperous under the Turks and they were given much control over their own affairs. The Greek Revolution had started in 1821 and followed a string of attempts by the Greeks throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule to gain their independence. Armed Greeks from the island of Samos were already a part of the revolution and they traveled to Chios to convince the Chians to join the fight. The Greeks attacked the Turks and they were successful, driving them back to the citadel. Only a few of the Chians had joined the other Greeks, but the island population would pay a terrible price. A Turkish fleet arrives on March 22nd to back up their comrades and when they came ashore, they pillaged and looted the island. On March 31st, a heinous order was given that would be carried out over the next four months. Not only was the entire town burned, but the Turks slaughtered every child under three years of age, all males twelve and older and all women over the age of forty. The only thing that would save a person was conversion to Islam. In all, 52,000 were enslaved and 52,000 were killed.

Lord Milner Hotel

The Lord Milner Hotel appears to be a mash-up of old Victorian London and a medieval castle. The hotel is located in Matjiesfontein on the Grand Karoo in South Africa and sits along national highway N1 that links Cape Town to Johannesburg. The hotel is lauded as a tranquil escape, but some parts of the hotel seem to be disturbed. Could there be spirits at unrest in this historic old building?

The original inhabitants of the region that would become known as Matjiesfontein were from two distinct groups: the Khoikhoi people and the San. The term Khoikhoi means "real people." They had traveled from Botswana and were agricultural people. They raised livestock and planted their food. The San are also known as Bushmen. They were hunter-gatherers. The two groups did have some mixing together, but for the most part, they did not get along. European explorers lead by the Dutch East India Company arrived in the area and things went downhill for the tribes from there. The Europeans brought small pox and warfare began. The Khoikhoi were eventually driven from the land.

In the 1800s, the Cape Government Railways would bring civilization to Matjiesfontein. The Prime Minister at the time drew a line through South Africa and directed his engineers to build a railway where this line ran. Matjiesfontein became a small stop along the railway when it opened in 1878. The station was named for a sedge that was used to make mats that were used in the construction of huts. There was a farm near the depot, but that is all that existed until 1884. A young Scotsman by the name of James Logan would change the future of Matjiesfontein permanently. Logan had been born in Berwickshire in 1857. He decided to head to Australia to make his fortune, but a ship wreck at the Cape of Good Hope stopped him in his tracks. He got a job with the Cape Town Railway Station and worked his way up to station manager. He then became District Superintendent of the line between Touws River and Prince Albert Road. He later quit his job with the railway to purchase a hotel in Touws and a wholesale liquor store in Cape Town. When Logan discovered a farm and land were for sale cheap at Matjiesfontein and that the railway ran through there, he purchased it quickly. As an added bonus, he found the air to be good for his weak chest. And like any great entrepreneur, he saw a need and decided to fill it.

The Cape Government Railways was efficient at moving people around, but not at feeding people. There were no dining cars as part of the train. People would arrive at Matjiesfontein and stretch their legs, but there was nothing to feed them. Logan received a government catering contract and started to build a village on the land he had bought. Logan built a refreshment station for travelers. He also built his home, Tweedside Lodge, and planted trees and a garden. He wanted to create an oasis. Then he built the Lord Milner Hotel in 1899, which helped to make the area a fashionable place to not only visit, but to stay for a period of time. Visitors included Lord Randolph Churchill and Rudyard Kipling. The author Olive Schreiner lived in a cottage on the property for five years. The mineral water business near the Lord Milner Hotel is still considered remarkable to this day. When the Lord Milner Hotel opened in 1899, it found itself serving another purpose altogether. The Boer War had started around the same time and the hotel served as the Headquarters of the Cape Western Command. Ten thousand soldiers and twenty thousand horses lived at Matjiesfontein. The village served as a base hospital as well.

James Logan died in 1920. His son and daughter ran the hotel and the village for many years after that and then sold it to David Rawdon in the 1960s. He was a successful hotel owner and he dedicated himself to restoring the Lord Milner Hotel. He re-opened it in 1970. In 1975, the entire village of Matjiesfontein was declared a National Historic Site. David Rawdon passed away in 2010. His nephew Jonathan Rawdon took over the reins and now runs the hotel along with help from his siblings and other family members.

The hotel offers 58 rooms, all without televisions, a suite, villas and cottages along with a restaurant and the Lairds Arms is a pub right next door where patrons can hear Johnny at the piano. There is a double decker bus on property to take visitors for a quick tour of the village. Attractions include a railway museum with a collection of well-restored railway carriages and an 1893 Glasgow-built steam locomotive. Another museum is dedicated to Olive Schreiner, author of The Story of an African Farm, who lived here from 1890 to 1895.

But more than just antiques and museum artifacts from the past exist here at the Lord Milner Hotel. Spirits from the past seem to be hanging out in the village and at the hotel. Many of the ghosts reputed to be at the Lord Milner Hotel are said to be cheerful. Their disembodied laughter is heard while they play an unseen game of billiards. The Logan family claimed to host many spirits and these spirits seemed to have a bit of trouble with doors. The Logans would marvel over rattling doorknobs. A woman named Jennifer had just had her wedding at the magnificent hotel. She was busily packing up her gifts when the doorknob began to rattle. The sound carried on rather quietly for a bit, but the spirit seemed to grow impatient and soon the rattling was so loud, Jennifer could ignore it no longer. She threw open the door and roared, "Fine, come in if you must, don't make such a damn noise about it!" A blast of cold air shot past her and out through the window. The ghost did not bother her anymore.

Since the Lord Milner Hotel was a place used in wartime, it is not surprising that the ghosts of soldiers are seen here. A wounded British soldier is seen near the cemetery. His arm is in a sling and there is a bandage wrapped around his head. When people stop to help the man, he disappears. Other soldiers hang out on the stairway at the hotel, but do not ask the staff about them because they will claim that nothing paranormal has ever happened at the place.

Is this Olive's ghost?

The author Olive Schreiner has not left the place yet. She really enjoys hanging out at the Lairds Arms and James Logan joins her on occassion. He was the creator of an oasis in the desert, so one can understand his desire to stay even after death. Logan is seen in all the lounges and in the hotel. Lights flicker on and off in the lounges as well.  And apparently in the bathroom. A journalist was writing about her stay at the hotel and how she had not experienced any ghosts until she went into the bathroom. She closed the door and the light immediately went out. She turned it on, walked away and it went out again. She figured it was faulty wiring and turned the light on again. Yes, it turned off once again. She got fed up and hollered something to the effect of, "I need to use the loo and I don't want to go in the dark. Please leave the light on!" The light stayed on. Another female ghost named Lucy was caught in a lovers' fight. She wanders the hallways in a nightgown, crying.

The disembodied sound of cards shuffling is heard on the second floor in a small room and a ghost named Kate claims to be the card lover. And that could be possible because there was a young nurse of nineteen named Kate who cared for wounded soldiers here during the Boer War. She loved to play cards will her patients. She passed away mysteriously.

A housekeeper by the name of Jean du Plooy tells the following story:

"She was alone in the hotel while it was being refitted. The night after the workmen had finished laying new wall-to-wall carpets, Jean was awakened by a ringing at the door. She clambered out of bed and went downstairs, expecting to have to turn away some would-be guests. She opened the door and was confronted by five rather peculiar travelers - all she could see of them was their upper bodies. In her astonishment, she blurted out the thought most in her mind: 'For god's sake, dont make a mess of the new carpets!' The ghosts stared at her blankly, looked down at their invisible feet, and vanished."

The crew filming the movie "The Story of an African Farm" had the following experiences:

 "A GHOSTLY presence joined the cast and crew filming The Story of an African Farm on location near Matjiesfontein, witnesses claimed.
The film, starring Swaziland-born actor Richard E Grant and local actress Karin van der Laag, will be released at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Producer Bonnie Rodini said she first met the ethereal resident of the farm Zoute Kloof when she was location-hunting eight years ago.
Rodini recalled how the hair on the back of her neck stood up one day when she was photographing the derelict farmhouse.
“I called somebody outside to come with me, walked on and took a picture.”
When Rodini had the film developed, she saw something on the wall that she photographed. “I turned the print upside down and saw it was a woman in a flowing white dress.”
Later, after the farmhouse was restored for the movie, Rodini was reluctant to tell fellow crew members about the farm’s ghostly resident.
“Some of the crew felt a presence in the house while we were filming, especially people from the art department who spent a lot of time in the house,” she said.
By the end of the six-week shoot, security guards also saw the woman. “One night the security guards heard a noise and saw a woman in white storming down the passage of the farmhouse.
“A few nights later, she opened the front door and you could see her from the yard,” said Rodini.
But it was not only at Zoute Kloof that the cast had strange experiences. Video operator Marco Rinaldi had to move out of his room in the Lord Milner Hotel in Matjiesfontein, after repeatedly waking up with a strange feeling in the middle of the night.
“It continuously felt like someone was looking over my shoulder,” he said.
Local historian Rose Willis is convinced the “ghost” that haunted the set is that of Louisa Margaret Green, the wife of a civil commissioner.
“She was travelling with her husband, Henry, who was on his way to become the civil commissioner of Colesberg in the 1860s, but then she fell ill with dysentery and died at Zoute Kloof.
“Her ghost has been seen often . . . She wears a kappie(bonnet), has a small waist and wears flowing white clothes that look like they come from the 1860s,” said Willis.
John Siems, manager of the Lord Milner Hotel, was not surprised at Rinaldi’s experience.
“There have been many visitors here who told me they saw ghosts late at night. I’ve been here for seven years and I used to feel scared when I had to close up the lounges late at night. At times I have felt the hairs on my neck stand up late at night.”

The Lord Milner Hotel is a distinct oasis in the desert, but could it be something more? Could it be an oasis for spirits? Is the Lord Milner Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

Ghost Video from South Africa:



Show Notes
*The Legend of the Flying Dutchman that was read on show:  http://www.essortment.com/flying-dutchman-legend-64877.html
*To book your accommodations:  http://www.matjiesfontein.com/
*Ghost tour in South Africa hosted by the Mystery Ghost Bus:  http://www.mysteryghostbus.co.za/