Chapter 78: Love For Ever, Lousie-The Murder in Room 1046

WEBVTT

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Hi guys. I'm Courtney and I'm
Lisa, and welcome to the next chapter

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00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:08.800
in the Book of the Dead.
Brought to you by dark Cast Network indie

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Podcasts with a Twist. Are you
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Jeffrey Amazon true crime podcast? I
thought so? Who got something just for

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of Terror, a true crime podcast
that dives into lesser known cases from around

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the world. Grab a glass of
wine and join us every Thursday as we

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discuss the most vile, despicable human
beings on the planet. It will be

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a dark and twisted journey, So
don't forget your drink. You're gonna need

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it. We're looking forward to say
in your next Thursday. Hello, Hello,

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00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:02.479
Welcome to the next chapter in the
Book of the Dead. Lisa,

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it is not with me. She
was in a car accident. She's fine,

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but she's very sore and she's not
up to it, which we respect.

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So it's just going to be me
today. She should be in the

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next one. But the case I
have for you today is a rabbit hole

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case. It's a case that I
deep dived and it's a case that honestly,

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while I spent two weeks reading articles
and reports, I could probably spend

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months reading even more. The problem
with this case is that while there is

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a lot of information, a lot
of it is the same and yet slightly

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different. So before we jump in, though, I want to tell you

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about the Hotel President in Kansas City, Missouri. There is a historic hotel

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that has stood the test of time
called the Hilton President Kansas City, and

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you can find this hotel thirteen twenty
seven, thirty five Baltimore Avenue when it

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opened in nineteen twenty six. This
hotel, originally named Hotel President Quote,

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reflected the opulence of Kansas City during
the nineteen twenties. It was the location

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for the nineteen twenty eight Republican National
Convention, whereby Herbert Hoover was nominated for

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president. It hosted many esteemed guests
such as Bob Dylan, Charles Lindsberg in

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four different presidents. Its lounge,
opened at nineteen forty one, hosted elite

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entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davies
Junior, and the Marx Brothers, just

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to name a few. After sitting
empty for twenty years. It was saved

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from demolition when its doors closed for
good in the nineteen seventies, and received

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a multimillion dollar renovation before becoming part
of the Hilton franchise. I'm sure you're

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asking yourself, Courtney, why am
I sitting here listening to an overview of

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some hotel in Missouri. This is
a true crime podcast, and it is

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I gave you some background on this
historic hotel because its history is marred by

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one of America's oldest onsolved murders.
The Hotel President is famous for being the

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location of the murder of a young
man, otherwise known as the murder in

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Rooum ten forty six. This is
a case with a lot of complex layers

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and has been debated for decades.
This case begins in nineteen thirty five in

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Kansas City. Prohibition had ended just
two years prior, and the city was

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still booming with the voracious nightlife that
was never actually impeded during Prohibition. Jazz

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clubs were open until the wee hours
of the morning, and crime ran rampant

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Under the regime of Tom Pendergast,
a city so rich in history and with

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a nightlife that was in a league
of its own was captivating and drew in

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many people looking for an adventure.
Once such person was a young man by

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the name of Roland t Owen.
On January Tewod, nineteen thirty five,

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a young man walked into the Hotel
President and requested a room. He was

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described as being in his twenties or
thirties, tall and husky, and had

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a very distinct scar on the left
side of his head where no hair grew,

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although he had attempted to hide this
with a combover as well as a

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cauliflower ear for those who don't know. According to the National Library of Medicine,

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cauliflower ear, otherwise known as wrestlers
or boxer's ear, is quote a

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deformity caused by blunt force auricular trauma. A hematoma forms on the outer ear,

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disrupting the cartilage and blood supply and
producing necrosis and inflammation fibrocartilogenus overgrowth the

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curs, forming the characteristic cauliflower appearance. This cauliflower ear led staff at the

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Hotel President to believe that this young
man was maybe an up and coming boxer.

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The man introduced himself as Roland t
Owen and gave los Angeles as his

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home. He was then given the
key to room ten forty six. According

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to all reports, Roland had shown
up at the hotel present without any luggage.

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He brought with him only the clothes
he was wearing, which included a

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long black overcoat. According to the
Cacy Library, although Roland carried no luggage,

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a bell boy named Randolph Props was
designated to show Roland to his room.

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According to an archived article via the
Kansas City Library, Randolph and Roland

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chatted together on the way up to
the tenth floor, where Roland was to

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stay, and he told Randolph how
he had stayed the night at the Meal

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Box hotel but left because they were
charging five dollars a night, to understand

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why he would have left whenu factoring
inflation, five dollars equates to one hundred

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and fourteen dollars and forty six cents, which is a lot of money to

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spend on a hotel room in nineteen
thirty five, although considering that the average

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hotel room costs for a night in
Kansas City now is around one hundred and

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forty three dollars according to budgeteartrip dot
com, that's actually a really good price.

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However, since Roland had no luggage
with him, you could assume he

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might have been strapped for cat I
actually found an advertisement from the President Hotel

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from that year, and they were
advertising rooms starting at two dollars a night,

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so around forty five seventy seven,
the Mulebach Hotel was double the price,

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so you could see why Roland switched. Roland had also mentioned to Randolph,

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according to the Kansas City Star,
something about never throwing a party again.

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Roland had apparently said, quote,
I don't expect to ever give another

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party again, and when Randolph laughed
and said he would change his mind,

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Roland said, quote, no,
last night's was my last party, which

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sounds like ominous foreshadowing to me.
Roland and Randolph made it up to room

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ten forty six, and Roland was
showed inside a room overlooking the court.

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Once inside, Randolph watched as Roland
pulled three items from his pocket to put

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them away. All he had brought
with him besides his clothing was a comb,

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a brush, and a tube of
toothpaste. Roland and Randolph then left

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together, with Randolph actually going back
to the room to turn up the lights

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and lock the door. He then
handed the Keita Roland, and they went

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their separate ways, with Randolph going
back to work and Roland leaving the hotel.

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Around noon, a maid named Mary
Sooptik went up to room ten forty

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six to clean it and was surprised
to see Roland sitting in the room,

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as when she was lost at work, a woman had been staying there.

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She told him she would come back
later, but Roland, who was sitting

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in the room with the curtains drawn
and only a small lamp giving a little

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bit of light, told her that
she could come in, but asked her

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not to lock the door as he
was expecting a friend to come bye in

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a few minutes. In a statement
made to police, Mary said that based

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on his actions and expressions quote,
he was either worried about out something or

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afraid, and that he always kind
of wanted to keep in the dark.

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While she was cleaning, Roland brushed
his hair and laughed, reiterating that Mary

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keep the door unlocked as he was
expecting a friend. Around four pm,

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Mary came back to the room with
fresh towels and saw that the door was

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unlocked and the room was dark,
but Roland was lying across the bed fully

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dressed. On the desk was a
note that she read by the lake coming

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in from the hallway. It said, quote down, I will be back

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in fifteen minutes. Wait on the
third. The next day, Mary went

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back to the room to clean it
again, but the door was locked,

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so, assuming Roland had left the
room, she unlocked the door with her

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key. Once inside, she saw
that Roland was inside, sitting in the

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dark. Then the phone rang and
Roland answered. According to Mary, Roland

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said, quote, no, Dawn, I don't want to eat. I'm

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not hungry. I just had breakfast. After the person on the other end

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spoke, Roland repeated that he wasn't
hungry. Then Roland started chatting with Mary

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about her job in the hotel,
and after a bit, Mary left.

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At four pm, Mary again came
back with fresh towels and heard two men

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argue it. Mary knocked and identified
herself, but one of the men dismissed

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her and said they didn't need any
towels. But Mary thought that was odd

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because Roland did need towels. She
had taken them all with her when she

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cleaned that morning. According to an
article for Kansas City Magazine, the arguing

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could be heard well into the night
with a guest telling police that she heard

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a lot of noise and it sounded
like a male and a female quote talking

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loud and cursing. According to the
Casey Library, this guest seemed to be

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a woman by the name of Gene
Owen, no relation to Roland. Jeane

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Owen was in Kansas City to shop
and meet up with her boyfriend. She

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ended up getting a room at the
Hotel President, Room ten forty eight.

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She told police that she heard a
lot of noise which sounded like it was

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on the same floor and consisted largely
of men and women talking loudly and cursing.

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When the noise continued, I was
about to call the desk clerk,

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but decided not to so. Jeanne
heard some sort of disturbance in the night,

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loudly enough that she was going to
complain and thought better of it,

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which, to be fair, I'm
the same way. Sometimes making complaint isn't

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just it's just not worth the hassle. Now, January third was a busy

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night in Kansas City. A lot
of things were going on in and around

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the hotel, and I'm going to
walk you through this activity because it may

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be relevant to the story. It
also may not be, but no one

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knows for sure, so it's worth
mentioning just in case. According to multiple

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reports, a man named Charles Bloker
was the elevator operator working the graveyard shift

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the night of January third, and
he had a busy night. He said

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there was a very boisterous party going
on in room ten fifty five, so

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that kept him quite busy, people
going up and down from the tenth floor

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to the lobby. However, he
also remembered a woman coming by in the

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middle of the night. Now,
not all reports mention her, but according

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to at least three different sources,
Charles had seen this woman come by the

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hotel many times a night to visit
with different guests, so he believed she

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was a commercial woman, which is
another name for a sex worker, and

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on January third, she came by
and asked for directions to room ten twenty

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six. However, a short while
later she had come back to the elevator

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saying her client was not in room
ten forty six, which was odd.

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However, according to the Casey Library, this was the stame in Charles gave

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to police quote, I took a
woman that I recognized as being a woman

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who frequents the hotel with different men
in different rooms. It is my impression

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from this woman's actions that she is
a commercial woman. I took her to

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the tenth floor and she made inquiries
for room ten twenty six. About five

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minutes later after this, I received
a signal to come back to the tenth

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floor. Upon arriving there, I
met this same woman, and she wondered

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why he wasn't in his room,
because he had called her and had always

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been very prompt in his appointments,
and she wondered if he might be in

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ten twenty four because the light was
on in there. She remained about thirty

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or forty minutes. Then I received
a signal to go back to the tenth

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floor. I went back, and
this same woman appeared there and came down

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in the elevator with me and left
the elevator at the lobby. About an

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hour later, she returned in company
with a man, and I took them

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to the ninth floor. I later
received a signal to go to the ninth

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floor at about four or fifteen a
m. And this same woman came down

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from the ninth floor and left the
hotel. In a period of about fifteen

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minutes later, this man came down
the elevator from the ninth floor, complaining

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that he couldn't sleep and was going
out for a while now. He described

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the man as being about five foot
six, slender, about one hundred and

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thirty five pounds, wearing a light
brown overcoat, brown hat, and brown

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shoes. The woman was described as
being about five foot six with black hair,

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weighing about one hundred and thirty five
pounds, wearing quote a coat of

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black Hudson seal or imitation Hudson seal. The coat had a collar with a

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light first strip and the collar stood
up. So obviously there's some conflicting stories

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about what room this woman was actually
looking for. Some people said ten twenty

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six. Allegedly the police reports is
ten twenty six, but some people speculate

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that she was really looking for room
ten forty six and Roland wasn't there now.

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That same night, according to Alabama
dot Com, a Kansas City Water

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Department employee named Robert Lane was driving
down the street when a man matching Roland's

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description flagged him down, thinking Robert
was attacks. Robert said the man was

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wearing only an undershirt and bottoms and
had a long scratch on his arm.

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Now, I don't know what time
this was, but if the man really

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was Roland, that means that at
some point during the night Roland left his

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room, which would explain why the
woman, if she was looking for Roland,

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couldn't find him. However, that
couldn't be corroborated by anyone on staff.

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No one saw Roland Lee. Again. These two accounts could mean nothing

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to the case, but they have
never been confirmed. Otherwise, what happened

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next is slightly different depending on the
source that you read. According to the

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Case magazine, sometime in the middle
of the night, the telephone operator on

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duty saw that the phone in room
ten forty six was off the hook,

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so a bellboy was sent up to
ask the guest to put it back.

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The bell boy was refused to entry
when he knocked, and he asked through

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the door for them to hang up
the phone. Around seven am, Della

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Cole, she is also named a
Stella Ferguson in another source, took over

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the board and saw the phone in
ten forty six was off the hook,

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so she sent another bell boy up. This one yelled through the door and

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was told the phone would be hung
up. Around eight thirty, the phone

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was still off the hook, so
bell boy Harold Pike, knocked on the

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door and went inside. There was
a naked man allegedly sleeping on the bed,

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presumably passed out drunk, so Harold
hung up the phone and left.

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Two hours later, another bell boy
was told that the phone was off the

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hook again and went up to room
ten forty six. This is where he

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walked into a crime scene. However, the Washington Harold has its slightly different.

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According to this news report, a
bell boy went up to room ten

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forty six at seven a m.
Because Roland had requested a wake up call

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at that time, but the phone
was off the hook so no one could

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call him. He knocked on the
door, entered, told the man in

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bed that it was seven, and
hung up the phone, and then left.

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Round ten, the bellboy went back
up because the phone was off the

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hook. He discovered the man still
in bed and the room smelled like liquor.

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The bellboy hung up the phone and
left. At noon, the bellboy

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went back up because of the phone. He used his key card to open

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the door because it was locked from
the outside. The bellboy noted the shades

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00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:26.039
were drawn and it was dark,
so he turned on the lights and what

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he saw made his jaw drop quote. Blood had spattered the walls, the

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floor, the bed covers, and
the furniture. A chair was overturned,

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the telephone had been knocked from the
bedside stand. In the bathroom was Roland's

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naked and slumped over the bathtub.
He had been stabbed multiple times all over.

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He had been bludgeoned over the back
of the head, and around his

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00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:52.919
neck was a tightly knotted cord.
A physician and a detective were summoned and

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they asked Roland who had done this
to him, but all he said was

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nobody. They asked how he had
been hurt, and he said he had

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fallen. They asked if he had
tried to commit suicide, as his wrists

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were cut, but Roland denied this
as well. He was immediately transported to

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Kansas City General Hospital, but it
was too late. Roland's injuries were too

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severe, and he died after slipping
into a coma on January fifth. Meanwhile,

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back at the hotel, police had
nothing to go on, as I

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said, Roland had been found nude, but whoever had killed him had taken

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his clothes with him. Additionally,
the few items he had brought with him

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were gone, as well as the
soap, shampoo, and towels provided by

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the hotel. The only things that
police could find in terms of evidence was

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00:17:41.079 --> 00:17:45.359
the label from a necktie, a
hairpin, an onn smoked cigarette, a

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00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:48.359
safety pin, and they found two
glasses in the room, one of which

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00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:52.079
they found a small set of fingerprints
on that they believed belonged to a woman,

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but since fingerprint analysis was decades away, there was nothing they could do

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00:17:56.599 --> 00:18:03.279
with these prints. Additionally, Kita
Roland's room was missing. The only thing

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00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:07.319
police could determine for sure was that
more than one person had to have attacked

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Roland because he was well over six
feet tall and over two hundred pounds.

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Additionally, upon examination of his body, it was discovered that Roland had severely

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damaged knuckles, meaning he had put
up quite a fight. Doctor Harold Flanders,

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00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:26.599
who had tried to save Roland,
came to the hotel to examine the

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00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:30.319
scene, and he determined, based
on how dry the blood was in the

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00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:34.480
room, that the attack took place
six or seven hours prior, so around

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00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:40.319
three or four o'clock in the morning, which based on at least what Gene

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00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:47.799
Owen was saying that matches up with
her version of events, hearing arguments between

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men and women in the middle of
the night. The other problem that police

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00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:56.960
were facing was that they couldn't find
any record of Roland t Owen existing.

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00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:02.119
There was no record of him anywhere
in Los Angeles, and police were starting

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00:19:02.119 --> 00:19:07.000
to think that Roland was a fake
name. Police spoke to multiple hotel staff

248
00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.599
members and guests and learned that Roland
had gone to the Meal Boch Hotel before

249
00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:15.319
checking into the hotel president. Hence, police look into this and discover that

250
00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:19.839
a man matching Roland's description had stayed
one night there, but checked him under

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00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:25.680
the name Eugene Scott. He had
also checked in with a man named Donald

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00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:30.839
Kelso, as you remember, Roland
spoke to a man named Don on the

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00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:33.079
phone and had also loved to know, telling Don he would be back in

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00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:40.920
fifteen minutes, but police couldn't identify
who Don was. Now the two check

255
00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:44.240
in cards were examined by C.
T. Smith, who was the president

256
00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:48.559
of the Kansas City Business College and
ct was an expert in handwriting. He

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00:19:48.759 --> 00:19:55.680
determined that based on the signatures,
Roland and Eugene were the Samet person after

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00:19:55.720 --> 00:19:57.519
talking with the staff of the meal
Bok. According to an article for the

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00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:03.559
Kansas City Times, they said that
when Roland checked in, he carried a

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small bag with him, As you
remember, he didn't have a bag at

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the President. But police could never
find this bag that the staff spoke about.

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00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:19.720
To this day, no one knows
what happened to it. So police

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00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:23.440
are geting nowhere at this point.
Weeks are going by and they are no

264
00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:27.440
closer to finding the murderers as they
are to finding out Roland's real identity.

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00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:33.279
So many people come to view the
body, including Robert Lane, who said

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00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:37.599
that Roland was definitely the man who
flagged him down, But this didn't give

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00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:41.920
the police any additional insight. A
national search was launched, and Roland's picture

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00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:47.680
was posted in newspapers and even barber
magazines in the hopes that a barber would

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00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:52.240
recognize him from his unusual scar.
While they received many calls from people claiming

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00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:56.119
that Roland was a relative, none
of the callers seemed to be genuine.

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00:20:56.519 --> 00:21:02.160
According to an expose in The Washington
Old published in March of nineteen thirty five,

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00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:07.440
eleven weeks after Roland's murder, When
no genuine relative came forward to claim

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00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:11.039
his body. Kansas City police announced
that Roland would be buried in a pauper's

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00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:18.880
grave. This is when things get
interesting. According to that expose, one

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00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:22.680
of the newspapers that published that story
received a call from a woman. According

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00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:26.160
to The Washington Herald, the woman
said, quote, you have a story

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00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:30.240
in your paper that is wrong.
Roland Owen will not be buried in a

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00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:36.119
pauper's grave. Arrangements have been made
for his funeral. When asked who she

279
00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:40.400
was, the woman allegedly said,
quote, that makes no difference. I

280
00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:44.640
know what I'm talking about. When
the mystery woman was asked what happened on

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00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:48.400
the night of Roland's murder, the
woman allegedly said, quote, he just

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00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:52.039
got into a jam, and then
she hung up. This same day,

283
00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:57.400
James mcgilly, the owner of Melody
mcgilly undertaking Establishment, received a phone call

284
00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:02.279
from a man. It was reported
that the man said, quote, don't

285
00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:06.160
bury Owen in a popper's grave.
I want you to bury him in Memorial

286
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:10.559
Park in Kansas City. The man
said he would wire money to pay for

287
00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:14.279
the funeral expenses, and he claimed
that Roland had come to Kansas City to

288
00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:17.960
meet a woman. When asked what
happened to Roland on the night he was

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00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:19.799
killed, the man said, quote, well, he didn't play the game

290
00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:25.200
fair and cheeters usually get what's coming
to them. Then the man hung up.

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00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:30.680
It's also worth mentioning that many reports
claimed that the man requested Memorial Park

292
00:22:30.759 --> 00:22:34.599
is the burial location so that Roland
would be close to the caller's sister,

293
00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:40.839
but that was not substantiated. Two
days later, a special delivery arrived at

294
00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:44.160
the money to pay for Roland's funeral. The money was wrapped in a pat

295
00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:48.519
from a magazine. The same day, W. H Oberg, owner of

296
00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.759
the Rock Floral Company, received a
call from an anonymous man saying he wanted

297
00:22:52.759 --> 00:22:57.279
to purchase thirteen American Beatie roses on
behalf of his sister for Roland's funeral.

298
00:22:59.480 --> 00:23:03.039
The day after the call, the
florists received the money as promised, with

299
00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:08.599
a card for the arrangement that said
quote love Forever Louise Now. Police did

300
00:23:08.759 --> 00:23:14.000
analyze the magazine that the money was
wrapped in, as well as the card,

301
00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:18.440
and they did find prince the ones
on the card potentially belonging to a

302
00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:23.400
woman. So, according to the
Washington Harald, the police's theory was that

303
00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:29.279
the woman Louise, was whom Roland
had come to Kansas City to meet,

304
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:33.960
and the caller was her brother.
The police theorized that the mysterious Don was

305
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:37.319
the murderer, and that he might
be the caller as well, but with

306
00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:41.880
no evidence to back this up and
no trace of where this Don was,

307
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:48.160
police had only that a theory.
It was a well fought out theory,

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00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:52.920
though at least to me, very
plausible. According to the Washington Harald,

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00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:57.160
the theory goes that Louise and Roland
were either engaged to be married, or

310
00:23:57.319 --> 00:24:03.119
Louise wanted to get married, and
Roland either wouldn't propose or wanted to call

311
00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:07.039
out the wedding, or perhaps he
was even being unfaithful. Based on the

312
00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:14.440
remark from the caller about cheaters getting
what they deserve, they believe Louise and

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00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:18.000
Don went to the hotel and threatened
Roland, and he thought they were bluffing.

314
00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:22.960
On the fourth, Don and Louise
came back to the hotel and Don

315
00:24:23.079 --> 00:24:30.079
attacked him, leaving Roland for dead. Police believed that Louise, upon finding

316
00:24:30.119 --> 00:24:33.680
out that Roland had died, refused
to allow him to be buried in a

317
00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:37.599
pauper's grave and forced her brother to
fund the funeral. As I said,

318
00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:41.039
it's a really great theory, they
just can't prove it. Meanwhile, in

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00:24:41.160 --> 00:24:48.359
Alabama, a woman named Ruby Ogletree
was very worried about her son Artemis.

320
00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:52.599
He had left home in nineteen thirty
four at seventeen, although some reports say

321
00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:56.400
nineteen with his friend Joe Simpson to
travel to la and for a while.

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00:24:56.519 --> 00:25:02.759
He sent her many handwritten letters talking
about job prospects and where he was going

323
00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:08.160
next. However, in January of
nineteen thirty five, weeks after Roland Owen's

324
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:14.680
murder, she received a typewritten letter
saying that Artemis was traveling to New York.

325
00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:18.359
Now, two things were odd about
this one. The tone of the

326
00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:25.279
letter was strange because it was very
detailed. Artemis usually sent his mother very

327
00:25:25.319 --> 00:25:27.799
simple letters. This is what I
did, this is where I might work,

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00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:34.440
this is where I'm going next.
This letter was highly detailed. The

329
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:40.000
next thing that was strange to Ruby
was that the letter was tight. Artemis

330
00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:45.319
didn't know how to use a typewriter. In April, another typewritten letter came

331
00:25:45.559 --> 00:25:51.440
saying that Artemis was going to France
and In August of nineteen thirty five,

332
00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:55.799
Ruby received a call from a man
named Godfrey Jordan, who claims he had

333
00:25:55.880 --> 00:26:00.160
met Artemis in Cairo and he had
saved Godfrey from a quote band of thugs.

334
00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:07.160
According to the Kansas City Magazine,
Ruby was incredibly unnerved and knew something

335
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:11.319
wasn't right. By November, she
had written to state departments to inquire if

336
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:15.480
her son had gotten a passport.
She spoke to customs authorities to find out

337
00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:21.240
if anyone matching her son's description had
tried to sail without a passport, and

338
00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:25.480
she had even contacted the American consulate
in Cairo as well as the FBI.

339
00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:30.240
According to the Kansas City Magazine.
In January of nineteen thirty six, she

340
00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:34.319
had even written to President Franklin Roosevelt
asking for his help in finding her son,

341
00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:38.359
saying, quote, I fear he
has fallen into some gang or something

342
00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:42.039
has happened to him. He has
always been a good boy and has high

343
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:47.240
ideals. I simply must find some
trace of him if he is in trouble,

344
00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.799
I want to know. In the
fall of nineteen thirty six, Ruby

345
00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:53.759
finally got her answer when a friend
of hers gave her a copy of the

346
00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:59.640
May nineteen thirty five issue of The
American Weekly, where they featured the story

347
00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:03.880
of Rolin t Owen, along with
the picture taken upon his death that featured

348
00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:10.640
his distinctive scar. Ruby knew right
then the fate of Artemis. She contacted

349
00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:14.359
the Kansas City Police and told them
that the man murdered in the President Hotel

350
00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:18.359
was her son, Artemis Ogletree.
She explained that the scar on his head

351
00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:23.160
was from a terrible accident when he
was a child involving hot grease. She

352
00:27:23.240 --> 00:27:27.920
sent the Kansas City Police letters and
photographs to substantiate her claims, and Roland

353
00:27:27.960 --> 00:27:33.440
t Owen was finally given his real
identity back. However, that begged the

354
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:38.880
question who was sending the letters to
Ruby. She started getting one she knew

355
00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:44.480
weren't from her son in January,
after his murder. In nineteen thirty seven,

356
00:27:44.599 --> 00:27:48.720
police believed they might have found the
murderer after a man named Joseph Ogden

357
00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.880
was arrested in New York for the
murder of his roommate Oliver Senecal. According

358
00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:59.240
to Casey magazine, Ogden had spent
time in multiple prisons and had been institutionalized

359
00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:04.400
twice, one being in Birmingham,
Alabama, where Artemis was from. Additionally,

360
00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:11.680
one of Ogden's aliases was don Kelso. Kansas City police believed that Ogden's

361
00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:15.720
handwriting samples were a match to the
don Kelso signature found of the Meal Bough

362
00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:18.839
guest card, but when the FBI
reviewed the case in nineteen fifty, they

363
00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:23.480
debunked this as false. The handwriting
was not a match, and Ogden was

364
00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:30.519
deemed innocent of Artemis's murder. Now, Ruby wholeheartedly believed that she knew who

365
00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:33.759
killed her son, or at least
had a hand in his death, and

366
00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:40.400
that was Joe Simpson, the man
that Artemis was traveling with. She claimed

367
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:45.519
that she confronted Joe in December of
nineteen thirty nine. According to the CAC

368
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:49.640
magazine, Ruby said, in correspondence
to the KCPD quote, he did say

369
00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:53.400
he did believe the case would never
break as there were no clues and left

370
00:28:53.480 --> 00:28:57.160
nothing for the g men to work
on. I said, Kansas City can

371
00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:02.559
well boast of it being the perfect
crime. He laughed and said, quote

372
00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:06.200
it is. They'll never get the
ones who killed him. Ruby says she

373
00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:10.079
eventually quote look Joe square in the
eyes and told him I would know the

374
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:14.279
voice that talked to me from Memphis. He turned red, dropped his eyes

375
00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:18.799
and was nervous. But the police, it seems, did not believe what

376
00:29:18.920 --> 00:29:22.319
Ruby said was credible, because,
as far as anyone knows, nothing came

377
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:29.680
of her accusations, which is strange
to me that they never investigated the man

378
00:29:29.799 --> 00:29:36.440
that was traveling with Artemis before his
death. But that was it. The

379
00:29:36.519 --> 00:29:41.599
case was left open, and it
turned real cold, real fast, with

380
00:29:41.799 --> 00:29:47.720
no answers as to who killed Artemis
and why. Except in the early two

381
00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:52.160
thousands, John Arthur Horner, who
worked for the Kansas City Library, received

382
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.519
a phone call from someone asking about
Artemis's case. The caller claimed that they

383
00:29:56.559 --> 00:30:00.880
were helping to pack up the belongings
of an elderly person who recently passed away.

384
00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:06.720
The caller came across newspaper clippings about
the murder, as well as a

385
00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:11.079
mystery object that was mentioned in the
newspaper clippings. However, John Horner said

386
00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:15.559
that the caller would not elaborate and
ended the call, adding another layer of

387
00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:22.920
mystery to a case that many people
referred to as the perfect murder. Now,

388
00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:27.920
it's been like ninety years and this
case has not really been looked into

389
00:30:29.279 --> 00:30:33.200
since the nineteen fifties when the FBI
went over it again. As far as

390
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:38.200
I can tell, police really didn't
look into the call that John Horner received.

391
00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:42.680
Obviously there was no evidence to go
on because the killers took everything with

392
00:30:42.839 --> 00:30:48.680
them, And even if they could
do something with the fingerprints now, which

393
00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:55.759
for all I know they did the
women's fingerprints that the police found initially at

394
00:30:55.759 --> 00:31:00.359
the crime scene, I'm assuming there
was nothing to compare it to. I

395
00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:07.519
wholeheartedly believe that their theory is correct. I don't know if Dohn Kelso is

396
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:11.640
really Joe Simpson though, and I
shouldn't say it's correct, but I think

397
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:15.920
it's very plausible. It is a
really great theory that they came up with,

398
00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:21.359
one that just based on the phone
calls that everyone was receiving, seems

399
00:31:21.400 --> 00:31:26.960
to make the most sense. You
know, was this mystery woman that came

400
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:30.519
to the Hotel Louise? You know? Was this man that showed up with

401
00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:34.240
her when she came back to the
hotel, John Kelso or Joe Simpson,

402
00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:40.000
I don't know. No one is
probably ever going to know. Again,

403
00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:44.920
this is one of those cases that
you could deep dive and probably go on

404
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:49.680
forever pulling out so much information.
But as I said, a lot of

405
00:31:49.799 --> 00:31:56.119
is it is the same but slightly
different, like in the two different articles

406
00:31:56.119 --> 00:32:00.160
that differed on how Artemis's body was
found. This is one of those cases

407
00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:05.599
that you kind of go back and
think about because there's so much to it

408
00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:07.880
and yet nothing to it. At
the same time, there was nothing to

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00:32:07.960 --> 00:32:12.759
go on. But they have all
of this information, it's just not telling

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00:32:12.799 --> 00:32:15.839
them anything. It is a story
where they have a middle, but they

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00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:19.599
don't have an end, and they
don't have a beginning. They don't know

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00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:22.799
where he came from or why he
arrived in Kansas City in the first place,

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00:32:23.240 --> 00:32:27.960
and they don't know who kills him
either way. As always, the

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00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:31.920
sources will be below in the notes. Check them out if you're interested in

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00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:37.240
this case. There's a lot of
them. There's twenty or so sources that

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00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:40.119
I used, but I think it's
worth looking into. A lot of true

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00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:44.920
crime enthusiasts have looked into this case
in the past, and maybe one day

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00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:50.880
it will be solved. Is it
likely after almost a century, No,

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00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:54.839
but it's possible. Anything's possible.
Thank you so much for listening. As

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00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:58.680
I said, Lisa, we'll be
back in the next one, hopefully if

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00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:02.799
she's feeling better, so send your
well wishous that she makes a speedy recovery

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00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:06.720
again. She's fine, no broken
bones, nothing like that, just a

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00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:10.519
lot of soreness and headaches, but
she's okay. I am working very hard

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00:33:10.519 --> 00:33:16.599
to try and go back to weekly
episodes instead of bi weekly episodes. I'm

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00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:21.599
really going to try and grind.
I have some time off coming up for

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00:33:21.680 --> 00:33:23.880
the fourth July, so I'm really
hoping I can really dig deep and work

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00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:29.039
on a bunch of cases so I
can't get back to weekly uploads. Maybe

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00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:34.680
get the Patreon up and running again. It was just too much, I

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00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:40.079
think at once for me working in
retail going through the holiday season and the

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00:33:40.119 --> 00:33:45.039
burnout was pretty incredible. But we'll
see what happens. I will keep you

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00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:51.759
updated and I'm going to try and
be more active on social media as well.

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00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:55.400
But as always, thank you so
much for listening and have a wonderful

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00:33:55.599 --> 00:34:00.640
rest of your week and I will
see you in the next episode. Bye,

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00:34:00.680 --> 00:34:06.240
guys, Thank you so much for
listening to this chapter of the Book

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00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:09.880
of the Dead, and don't forget
that you can always connect with us on

436
00:34:10.079 --> 00:34:15.119
Instagram. You can connect with us
on Twitter and you can absolutely connect with

437
00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:21.679
us on Patreon. We also have
a merchore as well that we have frequent

438
00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:25.800
discount codes coming out for so that
you guys can get March hand drawn by

439
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:30.000
myself at a better cost. We
hope you have a lovely rest of your

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00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:37.159
week and just remember please be kind
and don't forget to always stay safe,

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00:34:37.360 --> 00:34:43.800
stay curious, and stay vigilant.
Bye guys, Bye,