How A Basement Fire Caught Dillinger And Left A Hotel Full Of Haunts

A basement fire, a desperate escape, and a suitcase full of contradictions turned the Hotel Congress into one of the Southwest’s most enduring ghost stories. We head to downtown Tucson to unravel how a 1918 rail-side hotel became ground zero for Dillinger’s capture and a century of spectral lore, then walk room by room through the encounters that keep investigators coming back.

We start with the history: Congress Street’s expansion, the Southern Pacific station, and the 1934 blaze that raced upward to the gang’s hideout. From there, we sift through the strangest details in the recovered luggage—Tommy guns, body armor, cash, gold coins, and whispers of a glass eyeball and a skeletal hand—and how those artifacts shaped decades of first-hand claims from staff and guests. The building’s restoration, landmark status, and still-working switchboard frame a space where time hasn’t fully moved on.

Then we dig into the hauntings with care. Room 242 carries the weight of a life cut short, with reports of a woman in white who sits at the bed or curls close in quiet grief. Room 220 is lighter, marked by a World War II veteran’s routine and the playful reappearance of butter knives left in impossible places. Room 214 hosts a dapper figure in seersucker and hat, often seen at the window of an unrented room, while 212 delivers pure anxiety: locks clicking, doors opening, and a ghostly “apprentice” practicing the craft of intrusion. Under the sidewalks, sealed tunnels with old glass lenses echo a harsher past—Chinese labor routes, smugglers, and disappearances—that anchor the hotel’s stories in Tucson’s wider underground.

If you love haunted hotels, true crime legends, and the way residual energy loops through old routines, this tour of the Hotel Congress is your next deep dive. We share what to watch for, how to plan a multi-room investigation, and where to extend your trip—Tombstone, Bisbee, and beyond—for a full Southern Arizona paranormal circuit. Subscribe, share with a fellow ghost nerd, and leave a review telling us which room you’d dare to spend the night in.

We apologize for the echo and technical difficulties.

Thank you for listening to the Paranormal Peeps Podcast.  Check us out on Facebook Paranormal Peeps Podcast or Coldspot Paranormal Research and on Instagram coldspot_paranormal_research

Transcript

Welcome Back & Topic Reveal

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Between the realm of the dead and the journeys of the living, join Josh, Jamie, and Elisa as they delve into the vast world of the paranormal and breathe life back into the history of the departed.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Paranormal Peeps Podcast. I'm Josh.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

I'm Jamie, and I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

And what are we talking about tonight, Jamie?

SPEAKER_03 0:23

What? Me? What?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Oh, wait. Did I miss something?

SPEAKER_03 0:28

No.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Okay. It's cheese, right? We're talking about cheese again.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

No, no, no. Remember, we went the cheese direction last time. Remember Wisconsin cheese? Yes. It's a night for me, by the way. Recap. Um, no, we're actually going to be talking, and so I never heard of this place. And that's kind of the things I've been kind of seeking out, are locations that I'm not familiar with. Now, I don't think it's really commonly known, at least not for a lot of people. I think for people that live in Arizona, it might be. But it's called the Hotel Congress. Ever heard of it? It sounds familiar, but I couldn't tell you anything about it. Okay, so there's another Hotel Congress uh that's in is it Chicago? I don't remember, but there's another one. And so a lot of people get these two mixed up, but this one is in Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

So it's not related to the Continental Congress where they stayed before writing the Constitution?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

No, has nothing to do with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Okay.

Tucson History And Hotel Origins

SPEAKER_03 1:28

Nothing. But it's so the Hotel Congress is in Tucson, Arizona. I've been there. Sounds like a made-up place. Totally made up. Make sure you said it right.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Isn't it Tuscan?

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Tuscan? It kind of looks like that, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:48

It sure does.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Okay, so it's in Tucson, Arizona. It's actually a fed uh federally recognized historic building, and it's in downtown Tucson, Arizona. So it's well known there, I'm sure. Oh, I'm sure it's it's probably like, you know, Tombstone, Arizona. Like everybody knows Tombstone, Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Or Bisbee.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

So, yeah, or Bisbee, Arizona. A lot of people know it, but yeah, I'm sure a lot of people in Arizona are familiar with this. But it was originally built in 1918, and it was actually designed by um the Los Angeles architectural firm, William and Alexander Curlett C-U-R-L-E-T-T. So, and it was part of an expansion of Congress Street in conjunction with the theatrical venue venue, uh, which was the Rialto Theater. And I probably totally said that wrong.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

It's it's possible. You're probably close enough for people to understand where you're at.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Yeah. So, and and the theater actually sits north of Congress Street. So, and then the rear of this building actually faces the historic Amtrak Southern Pacific train station, which was built by Southern Pacific in 1907. So it goes back a little bit. Like this is a historic street and just kind of area in general.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I guess I didn't realize Amtrak or yeah, I guess I didn't realize Amtrak went through Tucson.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Yeah, it's yeah, that's kind of cool. I had no idea either. Um so but in addition to the Congress being just a hotel, it's also it has a bar, it has like a music venue, and it actually has a restaurant as well. I don't know if it's a restaurant or like a cafe that like serves like some food and stuff. So it's it's it's multiple of those things. So that the actual name of the Congress Hotel, it was act the name for it was actually picked through a contest where it's like, hey, come up with a name for this new place and blah blah blah. And that's the one that won. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

So the thing that won was naming it after the street that it sits on.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Yep. So originality. Right? So yeah, it was chosen through a naming competition that was organized by the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, and that was in 1918. So the actual winning suggestion was actually announced on April 30th of Hey, that's my birthday. Yeah, that's Elisa's birthday. Um, and it was submitted by Dorrit Dinkle. That poor lady.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Oh, Mrs. Dinkle, we have got words.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Oh, you know what? I actually kind of really like the name.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Like it's just fun. I really hoped she was a cute person. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Like a cute personality. Because that could go either way.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

But so for winning the naming competition of the hotel, she won$15 worth of baby bonds for having the name chosen. What the heck is a baby bond? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I think it's like a bond you get when, like essentially, like when you have a baby. So you like you get like a almost like a treasury bond, like an 18-year uh bond, and then it matures at 18 when like an interesting. Yeah, just like an interesting earning treasury note. It just they just have I think they happen to be like 18-year notes.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Yeah, and$15 worth back then was probably a lot. Fair amount of money. A fair amount, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

I just I wonder what I like. I I get she won with terrible originality.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Well, everybody loved it because it got right.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I wonder what the other names were.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

You know, that would be interesting to hear to read, but I I didn't find any. Of course, I didn't really dig deep to look for other names that were still. Yeah, like but it would have been nice had they included a handful.

The 1934 Fire And Dillinger Capture

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, you found like hotel bigotry, hotel horror, hotel murder. And you're like, Yeah, hotel congress works. Let's use that one.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Let's name it after the street it sits on. Duh. So the hotel is known for being the site of the capture of gangs, famous gangster and bank robber, Don Jillin Dillinger's gang, and that took place in 1934. So after a series of bank robbery, sorry, after a series of bank robberies, uh the Dillinger gang arrived in Tucson in order to hide out. Okay, so they commit all these robberies, they go to Tucson to hide out. So on January 22nd in 1934, there was a fire that actually started in the basement and spread up to the third floor of the hotel where the gang was residing under various aliases. Okay, so Mr.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Dinkle.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

So after the desk clerk contacted them through the switchboard, which by the way, that switchboard is still used today. That's impressive. Yeah, that's awesome. They don't make things like they used to do it. They don't, they sure don't. It's still there, and it is still used to this day. Anyways, they contacted them through the switchboard, and then the gang escaped by aerial ladders. So basically those ladders that hang out the windows, I'm guessing.

unknown 7:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Like little rollout ladders.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

That or they took a ladder and and went from a window to the next building. But either way.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

I don't know. Either way, they escaped. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

So on the request of the gang, so the these gangs asked uh, because I think it was like two of the gang members. I don't think it was multiple because I I watched a thing and I come across the original news article that said it was two of the Dillinger gang members. And I think one was John Dillinger. Um, so two of them, they went to these firemen, these couple of firemen, and requested that they retrieve their luggage from their room. Right. And so when the firemen retrieved their luggage, by their luggage, they identified just who they were. So after being transferred, so they were obviously arrested. Yeah, I was gonna say, did they do anything about it? Oh gosh, I hope so, right? Right, or did they just take the money that Dillinger gang took and rob them? Um, so after being transferred to the jail in Crown Point, Indiana, Dillinger actually ended up escaping again. So he's escaped multiple times from law enforcement. Um, but he was eventually on this when he escaped this time, he was eventually shot down in Chicago. Oh wow. Taken out. So bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

You wonder if he had like a luggage tag on his bag that said John Dillinger.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

Or did the fireman like was the luggage not like closed? And so when the fireman went up to retrieve it, they see like all the money from the banks.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

That's what I'm wondering is if they were like, let's open these bags, like what's in these bags that was one not fully closed, yeah, and they discovered all this money from the bag.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Can you grab my 30,000 in cash and bring it down for me, please? I kind of need it.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

It's my life savings. So uh local Tucson architect Roy Place ended up so it was the third floor that burnt down. So now today the hotel is just two floors floors, the main floor, and then the upper floors where the rooms are. Okay, up on floor. They never rebuilt the third floor.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

So local Tucson architect Roy Roy Place, uh, he actually rebuilt the upper floor in the same style as the original. So the second floor, because I I'm sure there's damage there too, because it started in the basement spread up.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Right. So it so it would go through second and then consume the majority of the third floor. Right. Which is a weird way for a fire to spread.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Yeah, you would unless there was way more flammable things on the third floor.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yeah, like 30,000 in cash. A little bit of kindling there, yeah, a little bit of dry kindling.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

But, anyways, when they when they rebuilt, they rebuilt the upper floor in the same style as the original, which is kind of nice. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

You know, gives it that style.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

It does. Um, and then a historic plaque was uh placed on the south entrance of the hotel, and it bears the place's name, so it is often believed to be of its original design, which it's it's architect after it like it's built, rebuilt as the original design, but it it's not all original.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Right. That's still neat though.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

And the Hotel Congress was actually added to the National Historic Register in 2013. Or no, sorry, 2003.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

So it's been on the register for for for a little while 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Yeah. So let's see, let's get to the good stuff. Okay, so that's just like it's just a small portion of the history. There is more, but I kept the interesting stuff like John Dillinger, the fire. That's kind of like the two biggest things, I think.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

It's pretty big notorieties for the one. I mean, interesting enough to think that a fire broke out in the basement of this hotel, which just so happened to coincide with an with an infamous gangster hiding out in the hotel.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Leading to his capture.

unknown 11:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

All because all because when he fled, he didn't take his luggage and he asked the fireman to go get it for him.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

So does he get like the dumbest criminal award for this?

SPEAKER_03 12:03

World's stupidest criminals.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Right?

SPEAKER_03 12:06

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

See, if I was the criminal, I'd like to pay some kid or whatever, be like, hey, ask them to go get this for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yeah, not somebody with integrity.

unknown 12:17

Right.

Rebuild, Landmark Status, And Legacy

SPEAKER_03 12:19

So, but because of the link of Don Don Gillinger. I can't even talk.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Don Juan Dillinger.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Don Juan Dillinger. Because of this link with Dillinger, they actually every year have Dillinger days on there.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Oh god, that's so awesome.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

So it looks kind of neat. I was watching a thing on it.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

It does look like it would be kind of are they all 30s gangster dressed up?

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Pretty much, yes. Oh my gosh, that's so fun. It looks like it could be fun. So there are reports of paranormal activity, and it may be linked to, it's probably I would say linked to the fire because I do believe people died. Um, it doesn't really say, but a lot of times people kind of get this um mixed up with Congress Plaza Hotel. That's in Chicago.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

So you gotta be careful when you look this one up. Make sure it's the Congress Hotel in Tucson, Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Right. So if someone's reporting some activity and they might accidentally be reporting it to the wrong location because it's got a similar name somewhere else.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

Right. So there have been tragedies there uh beyond the fire. Um, so there's a woman in a white dress, of course. We always got a woman in white, but she's in room 242. So she was a young woman and she was on an extended stay at the hotel Congress. Um, she was going through a rough time in her life. It doesn't really like there's some articles that kind of tell you a little bit more, but we're just gonna keep it pretty basic.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Pretty simple.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

So she was having a hard time in life, and she was really troubled. And the hotel staff notes that she was talking a lot about wanting to make the voices stop. Oh, okay. So she's a little schizo, maybe maybe, yeah. I think she had a lot of trauma. There was some sort of a love thing and rejection thing, and and I think that's kind of where it started. So the staff and other guests, you know, obviously the the more they would talk to her and hear, I want the voices to stop, you know, they got really concerned, and they eventually ended up calling authorities to basically do like a wellness check on her up in 242. And sadly, the woman actually ended up taking her own life. Did it say how? No, I I saw stuff where she shot herself on the bed in there. So, but I don't know. Like, I didn't dig super deep. I'm sure if you I mean, I don't know. There could have been an article about it somewhere if you dug far enough or knew where to look, maybe you could find a cause.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah, there'd be a police report somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

It something like that in a small Tucson's not a huge town, and it was probably a tiny town back then. Back then, so I'm sure it made the news.

Room 242: Tragedy And Presence

SPEAKER_03 15:22

I'm sure it did, you know, especially like after the fire and everything, you know, and then suicide and a room. And but I mean, she was hearing voices, she wanted the voices to stop, and she ended up taking her own life. My guess is to get the voices to stop.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yep. That would stop them.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Yep. Well, we don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

That's true, right? Theoretically, it would stop them.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Right. But it's rumored that her spirit has never actually left room 242.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

So it says that she shot herself during a standoff. Yeah, see.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Oh, with the police. So they would have came, went to check on her.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

Probably wanted to pull her out of there, get her some help. And she's if you're hearing voices, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Right. She's like, Hell no, we I won't go. Hell no, we won't go.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Oh, maybe. Poor thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Ugh.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

So a lot of guests have reported like a very big heaviness in the room, which would make sense, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Sadness, just dismay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Just uncomfortable, thick, heavy feeling. Um, and can you imagine the energy she had been putting out in that room for how long had she been there? You know?

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Yeah, and it was an extended stay. So it had been weeks, months. I mean, but they say, uh, I guess it reported that a woman in a long white dress is will sit on the end edge of their bed. Some report feeling somebody lay down in the bed next to them and like like curl up with them, like they're spooning. Yeah. And you know, the feeling that they get isn't like of course it's startling because especially when you're staying in the room alone and you feel somebody spooning you, like it's a little Yeah, it's not what you're expecting. No, but they report like feeling like you know, like she's lonely, like she just wants to be close to somebody because she's alone and she wants to be loved, and you know, so that would be heartbreaking. That would be heartbreaking after you get over the initial shock, yeah. So, um yeah. Hold on. So yeah, it just says uh they think she feels the need to impart and share the darkness that clouded her life with whoever stays in that room. Probably a sense of depression.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:59

So it's just, I don't know. It's just that's sad. I mean, I think this is the most like on everything I watched and read and looked up, 242 was the most prominent out of all these hauntings. There's a handful.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Well, and also it's probably the oldest. And where if you have that much depression and you're putting in that putting out that much energy for as long as she was in that however long she was in that room, obviously longer than a normal stay, yeah, then it's probably a little more prominent.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

And also thinking, like, I wonder if the reason why people always see women in white is because most of the time their pajama clothing were white dresses that they would go to bed in. And what always happens at like at night, things get worse. Yeah. Emotionally, mentally, physically, yeah. Like I feel like when I get sick, it's always worse at night. It is than during the day. Yes. You know, whenever I'm depressed, it is worse at night than it is during the day. I feel like the sun makes a huge difference. Light makes a huge difference on anybody's personality and attitude. But also like when it's nighttime and everything is quiet, there's no noise around, and you're you have all this depression and it just kind of like builds up. And at night it's just becomes too much. It's more intense.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

It is it's like amplified.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

And so that's why I wonder if maybe she did it at night and she was in her white pajamas. Yeah. That are often on women during that time. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

So very real possibilities.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Yeah. Maybe that's why there's always a lot of women in white. Yeah. Doesn't have to be a wedding dress, guys.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Well, and and that's true, but that I mean, that's what people think about, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:54

They think about a wedding dress, but a lot of those nightgowns back in the day were lovely. Yeah. Lazy pretty long, flowy nightgowns, which in today's day and age we would interpret as a dress.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Well, and if you think about it too, is a lot of the time I will see, like or read about these women in white, their hair is down.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

And back in the day, they didn't really wear their hair down. They wore it up. So at night, they put their hair, they take their hair out and it's down and long. So something to think about.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Yeah, makes total sense to me. Yep. So then we go to room 220. So it has two doubles in there, sleeps four. Two to a bed. So it's reported that a World War II veteran that arrived at the hotel Congress in 1965, and he never left. So he was very disciplined. Okay. He had his routine and he followed the same routine day after day. He would wake up, he would get dressed, he would go downstairs, he would then uh get a cup of coffee and a small plate, a butter knife, and a bagel. And he would then return upstairs to his room to eat. And when he would finish, you know, like a lot of people still do, they leave their plates and dishes outside the door.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Very common.

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Yeah. So he would leave the dirty cup and the play outside and the butter knife uh for the cleaning service. Um I wish I could do that.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

But you can, but you just gotta go pick it up when you're done.

The Butter Knife Veteran In 220

SPEAKER_03 21:39

Well, so he would leave he okay, so here's the thing. He would leave the dirty coffee cup, the dirty bagel plate, but he would never leave the butter knife out. Oh for the service to pick up, which is I don't know why I don't know why, but he wouldn't. Um so what's a self-styled mean? What is self-styled mean? Okay, spell it self-what? Self-styled. Self-styled what? Handyman. So I'm guessing what they're meaning. Because he leave his stuff out for the cleaning service, but he never returned the butter knives. And the self-styled handyman would often not only use these knives with his breakfast. Okay, so he was a they're calling him a handyman. He's a soldier, but they're calling him a self-styled handyman.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Okay, a self-styled handyman is someone who has given themselves the title of handyman without the formal certification, licensing, or official qualifications. All right.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

There's actually a qualification to be a handyman?

SPEAKER_02 22:45

It says that the term is often used with negative connotation.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Oh, gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

So yeah, they said he would often not only use these knives with his breakfast, but he would also use them to fix various things around the hotel that he saw. Oh needed fixing.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Okay, so now probably use it as like a screwdriver kind of thing. I've done that. I've totally done that with a butter knife.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Okay, so I get the self-style now because here he is. He's walking around the hotel with a butter knife in hand, going, hmm. This screws loose. This is a little loose. Let me fix that.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

A little bored. He might be like fills his days because he has his routine, but beyond after he does his routine in the mornings.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

What's left?

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Well, maybe that was part of maybe that was part of his routine where he walked around the hotel for things to kind of tighten up and fix things.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

And if this is the 60s, it's 1965. World War II ended in the 40s, which means he's about so he's an older veteran. He's 40 some, it's at least 40 years old. Yeah, at least 40 plus. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

So, anyways, he was a collector and a bit of a trickster in life. And it seems like that transferred over into his afterlife as well. Um, so after he passed, and he passed in 2001. And it doesn't say if he passed at the hotel, but I wouldn't imagine that would like 1965 to 2001. I yeah, I doubt it.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

But doubt he was living in the hotel style.

SPEAKER_03 24:14

I doubt he was living in a hotel, but it seems like the hotel was like a time in his life where he was there for an extended period, probably. And maybe he really liked it there and liked his routine that he had there.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

There was time in the 60s and 70s where people would live in hotels who didn't have apartments because of it was easy, they weren't expensive, you could easily live there and work, and and so people would do that. And so it's a good possibility he lived there for a while.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

Yeah. And it could be. But, anyways, he passed in in 2001. And after his passing, like staff and housekeepers and even guests at the hotel, they actually started finding restaurant butter knives outside of the room and in very random places. That's so cute. Throughout the whole property, not just in the hotel, but around.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

He's still going around fixing things, dropping his knives. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Dropping butter knives.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Yep. I wonder if part of it is or if it's like residual. It could be. You know, because if you have, you're more likely to have a residual haunting if there is a person who has a routine that I do every single day. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

And he was very, he had a routine.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Can you imagine going to bed and waking up with a butter knife on the pillow next to you?

SPEAKER_03 25:33

That's not that would be a little terrifying. That would be a little alarming because what what do you need a butter knife for laying on your pillow?

SPEAKER_02 25:38

And you're like, who in the freak just put this butter knife by my pillow?

SPEAKER_03 25:42

Where did it come from? But so apparently he also enjoys locking and all locking locking the doors to the rooms and you know to different entrances and stuff. And he likes also moving guests' items around the place. That's cool. So seems harmful, just more of a trickster.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Where's my bag? Why is there a butter knife where my bag was?

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Right? Is this a threat? Are you sending me a message? So then we move on to a Victorian channel, gentleman that is in room 214. Okay, so this has got one king bed in it. Obviously, sleeps two people. Um, so this one seems to be the favorite room of a stately man from I don't know when. So he's dressed in his Seersucker suit. So what is that?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

That's 19 Seersucker being 1940s? 1950s.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

See, I was gonna say 30s and 40s.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Um Yeah, which which is weird that you describe him as Victorian because Well, that's what they're describing as Victorian gentleman.

The “Victorian” Gentleman In 214

SPEAKER_03 26:55

How do you spell it? Uh it's E-E-R and then Sucker.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Sucker food. Seer sucker.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

I think that's 30s to 60s.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

Well, that's a that's pretty broad. I want to narrow it down just a little bit more. Okay, let's see. Seersucker suit. I mean, this is why I wish I could witness some of this stuff so that I could kind of be like, okay, is it really a seersucker suit? Or, you know, because if you call them Victorian, was a seersucker suit in the Victorian era, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

No, there was that was much more of a modern era type style.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Yeah. It says someone would wear a seersucker suit during the spring and summer, especially when it's hot. The style, the style was popular, right? We're all winning. Popularized in the 1920s by Princeton students and became mainstream in the 1930s. Okay, so it would actually be Victorian.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

1930s in Victorian.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

20s?

SPEAKER_00 28:04

1920s aren't Victorian.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Are you sure they're not Victorian?

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Victorian era is is 1700s.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

But when you watch like Meet Me in St. Louis, and they live in like this Victorian house and they kind of dress that way.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Right. I I think I think the I think what ends up happening is people say, Oh, he looks Victorian, because you're talking about a nice suit, yeah. Probably a hat, probably either a top hat or a bowler hat, something along those lines. And obviously, if even if I saw someone dressed like that today, you might think the same thing. You would think something more Victorian because I mean, obviously, I mean, how often do you see someone now walking down with a down the street with a three-piece suit on and a top hat and a cane?

SPEAKER_03 28:53

You don't, you don't, unless it's Halloween.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Exactly. And and then what do you dress as Halloween? Oh, I'm a Victorian vampire or Victorian, you know, something.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Victorian steampunk.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Yep. Anyway, so he uh hold on. So, anyways, he he's you know reported around the halls of the hotel, which there's not many halls. You got first floor and second floor, second floor, and that's in and the rooms are all up on the second floor. Because in the main floor is like the lobby, the music venue that was added, like I think in the 80s, and then like the little cafe and and the bar, which they call I think Tiger's Bar. Um, so oh yeah, and sometimes he's even seen in a depper top hat. Yep. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Yep, that would that would put people as looking at it as Victorian, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Even though it's not so many guests have actually claimed to see him standing in the window and watching the people mingle in the plaza area below. That would be kind of cool. But The room that he's like looking out of the window to the room, uh, they'll check it only to find out that that room hadn't been rented out that night and nothing's been touched. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 30:13

Yeah. I want to see something like that. But they said the impression they get from him is he's just very friendly. Yeah. I mean, those are the best kinds. Right. He's a people watcher.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

He's a people person. Just like, you know what? This was a fun place to stay. We'll hang out for a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Yep. Well, and you know how interesting it would be to be somebody who lived during that time and to come back and like watch people nowadays be like, holy cow, things have changed. Like, how fascinating would it be?

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Well, I think it would be a little scary too. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

But think about it. Right. But think about it from our avenue too, though. Like, what would life be like a hundred years from now?

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Because that's what we're I mean, in the literal sense, that's what we're looking at now. Someone who who would have died or been around in the 1930s, that's a hundred years ago.

The Locksmith Apprentice In 212

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Yeah. You got horses upstairs.

unknown 31:11

All right.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

Like a whole herd. Okay, so our next haunting is in room 212. And this has one king bed and sleeps two people. And they actually call this one the locksmith apprentice. So if you rent out this room, it's reported that it pretty much starts out like you would think, right? Like any night. You get ready for bed, you crawl in the bed. But as the evening kind of wears on, they start people report uh experiencing some supernatural mischief. Okay, so they have consistently reported um the locking of the like they'll lock their door, they'll turn off their light, right? And turning in for the night, only to find a few minutes later and hear that the door opens again. Like the lock clicks and the door opens. So it's like something, it sounds what they describe it as is it sounds like someone's picking the lock. Like they're like someone's physically out there with tools picking the lock. Oh my gosh, that'd be so scary.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

And then you hear it click and then you hear the door. That would be terrifying. If you're staying in a hotel room, yes, that's like worst case scenario.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

That's a nightmare. Yeah, yeah, that's a nightmare fuel right there.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

So this lock picking, like people will get up and they'll be like, what the heck? They'll look down the hall, out the door, nothing there. So they'll shut the door and lock it and get back into bed only to hear it happen again. So this one guy, he was like, you know, whatever this is, it's a game. So you know what? I'm just gonna leave the door open, right? So he's thinking that's gonna solve the problem. If I don't shut it and lock it again for like the fifth time, whatever's doing this can't pick it and open it. Yeah, because it's already open. Well, to his surprise, the door then shut and the lock locked. I mean, can you imagine how frustrating that would be?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

He just doesn't want you to. He's like, You think that's funny? I'm just gonna close the door on you and lock it. And then I'm gonna pick it later and open it again.

SPEAKER_03 33:27

Right when you're about ready to fall asleep. So yeah, they they say that whatever this ghost is, they're practicing their lock picking skills. You know, now do they just do it to the one room? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

You know, fun to do is try is go in with a board and put like three or four different locks and lock types on the board and see if they will attempt to pick those locks while you're sleeping.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Sharpen his skills to master pick.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Yes. You know what that reminds me of? Remember like the Melissa and Doug toys for little kids? They have they're all made out of wood. So they're like better material. And they have locks, different types of locks that you can that kids can learn to open on just this wood board. That's crazy. Yeah. Like, we'll just get a Melissa and Doug toy.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

Here, pick these locks.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

There's some locks for you.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

This will keep you busy. So I found like these are like hauntings that are generalized to like certain rooms and associate with certain certain rooms. But this one actually that I found says that there was a good-looking middle-aged man in the 1930s in an old-fashioned gray suit with a long gold watch with chain, like a pocket watch, right? And he was actually murdered during an April 1st, nine uh during a poker game on April 1st, 1931. And after he was murdered, so I'm guessing it doesn't say why he was murdered. I'm guessing they thought he was cheating, something, there was a dispute. Or he won, and other people were blessed that he won. Won their money. They killed him. And they hid his body under the bed and then continued playing poker. I mean, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Bang, you're dead. Sweet. Put you under the bed. Who's in?

Poker Murder, Tunnels, And Old Tucson

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Right? Any up. But so, anyways, um, sometimes he's actually been seen peering out from the second-story windows of unoccupied rooms on that floor. Um, it's like he's looking to continue his life. So yeah. And then of course, this one refers to room 242 again with the the woman who took her own life. Um so they call it the suicide room. And it just says after a young woman working as it says she was working as a barmaid in the 1940s and took her life following her breakup with a married, high-ranking 1940s local official. And okay, and here it is, resulting in a midnight standoff with authorities that ended in a hell of gunfire, from which her death from 29 bullets was officially listed as a suicide. Oh, suicide by cop. Yep. So the bullet hole in the room's closet still early gives um an on-settling connection to the events of that bloody night.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

That would be interesting to put like an EMF meter to that.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

So apparently the bullet hole, there's a bullet hole still in the closet that's still there. Yeah, that would be cool. And that's room 242. That's cool. So uh a lot of guests report hearing strange noises, seeing the ghostly apparition of the woman. They say she's walking up and down the hallway and in the room's bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

See that part of the story kind of makes a little more sense to why she will spoon you in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Because she's she was rejected. Rejected by a married man. Which seems to be part of the the problem with a lot of these stories.

SPEAKER_03 37:18

Yeah. Well, and they also report smelling the smell of roses along the lobby stairwell. Old lady perfume.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yep, old lady perfume.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

And that's been going on and off for like years, years and years. Uh, they've been finding old-fashioned uh flat butter knives scattered around from that one gentleman. And this is another article. So um, Vince, who is a resident at the Congress Hotel, he was a resident there for 37 years. Whoa. So maybe these people were there for a long time. This is the one, the veteran.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

Apparently, his name is Vince. He's the one that steals the butter knives. So he was there for 37 years, and he was known for stealing the knives from the kitchen and around town during the 60s and 70s until his mysterious death in 2001, during a full moon, when he was attacked by a desert bobcat in the alley. What? Yeah, that's what this article says. And see, this is the problem is in some articles you get some of the details. Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

And then in other articles you get more of the details.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

And then you gotta read another article to get the to fill in the the gaps.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Right. But it also makes me wonder like the validity of these reportings.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

I would say some of them are probably very the ones that are more detailed are probably some of the more accurate ones. It's interesting though, because it's like he we were just questioning how long did he live there? Was it a short-term thing? No, he lived there until his death. He lived there for 37 years. So, I mean, it's not uncommon for people to live in hotels like that, especially if it's it's cheap enough and whatnot. So, like they'll do that.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

It's interesting that he that he not only stole butter knifes from the hotel, but from around town.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

So like cafes and stuff. You know, I had a fascination with butter knifes.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

The strangeness to be killed by a desert bobcat in an alleyway.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

In an alleyway by the hotel.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

No, granted, if you've never been to Tucson, it's basically right outside of town is the desert, so it's not it's not for it's like finding deer here, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:33

Yeah, it's I'm sure it's not as common, but it's possible.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Yeah, I mean, you'd have like I've seen things where they're bare in someone's backyard if you're like right by the mountain and stuff like that, or a moose. But yeah, to have an apex predator just kind of like meander in the town and then take somebody out.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

Well, it does happen not too long ago earlier this year. We had a cougar somewhere running over here in Lehigh.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

Yeah, in your neighborhood. Yeah. Remember when you and I were outside talking? Well, here's the thing because when I came, I heard a growl and it sounded like a cat growl.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

And I was like, what is that? And then you told me that there was a cougar around or something.

SPEAKER_03 40:17

Remember, we were talking. Oh, you're right. It sounded like a chirp, and it was night. It was like 11 o'clock at night. Her and I were outside of our garage talking because she was getting ready to get in her car and go home. And we heard a chirp. And she looks over and I'm like, uh, I don't want to scare you, but that sounds like a cougar. And she's looking at me like I'm crazy. We get in the car, she pulls up the thing like sounds cougar make, and one was the identical chirp. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

The the one that is that is bone-chilling to me is when a cougar screams like a woman.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

Or a child.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Really?

SPEAKER_03 40:55

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

And when you're at a gas station by yourself in the middle of nowhere, and you hear that, your blood just goes cold.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

It does. I've never heard that when they scream like that.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

You don't want to because it's terrifying. It is terrifying. But it sounds just like a woman screaming like she's being murdered. Yeah. It is terrifying.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

Yes. Oh my gosh. And they also do the chirping sounds. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Always of drawing in prey.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Yep. So, anyways, the sidewalk out of the hotel that was built in the late 1800s, it was actually before the hotel was built. Um, it reveals kind of like a mystery. So, in an outdoor cafe uh that fronts the tap room and lobby bars of the area, uh, you can still see parts of the pavement that's actually embedded with this like this thick multicolored bubbles of gold. Um, well, different colors of old glass shards. It's like embedded. So the glass was put there to allow like light to filter down to a spooky series of long closed-off tunnels below the sidewalk that once ran around and underneath original downtown areas. Makes me wonder if they're still open down there. I know. Like, could you could be like underground tours?

SPEAKER_00 42:12

That sounds a lot of like night, gosh, that sounds like it'd be part of the 1930s.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

But so the tunnels actually were originally used in the 1800s for many of the Chinese workers uh to get tuned from their job sites and around downtown Tucson areas. Um when it was back in time when the United States uh had like the anti-Chinese laws and uh numerous uh illegal discrimination practices.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Yeah, I do remember hearing about that.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

So and then there's also another I mean that it's interesting because I wouldn't think I wouldn't think Western Arizona as a place you would find Chinese labor. Yeah, yeah, it was more the eastern well actually no, it's usually like so the Chinese the Chinese built the railroads coming from California. Yes, yes, but if you draw the correlation, the fact that there is another railroad, Southern Pacific Railroad, was down there, then it's more than likely that they came from the railroad.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Yeah, which makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

And then they yeah, then they were digging their tunnels and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

Yeah, and of course, so it was a way to get them the Chinese to and from job sites without being seen up on the streets and all the things, right? And that way they couldn't socialize with other people, and um, but of course, being tunnels and being secretive, they were also abused for more sinister purposes. They always are, they always are, right? So saloon owners, gamblers, thieves, uh Tucson uh vigilante committee, and like nefarious others uh would use the tunnels, you know, at will after dark. Um those out at night sometimes disappeared down into the underground tunnels and were never actually seen again. So Shanghai, right? But I think they were also murdered too. Like oh, I'm sure drugged down there, robbed, and probably murdered, right? And disposed of wherever. Um, so yeah, it's said that there are restless spirits uh that were never never able to fulfill their full lives still prowled down in those tunnels.

Dillinger’s Luggage And Strange Artifacts

SPEAKER_00 44:29

So it sounds like there's still might some of the tunnels still might be available.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Well, and it sounds like a lot of negative energy.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Lots.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

So, and going back to Dillinger, okay, there's another thing that says when the luggage was later recovered and one bag accidentally opened up. Accidentally, quotes, accidentally, um, it found that it uh contained three Thompson 45 caliber submachine guns. Oh my goodness, two 3030 Winchester rifles, five military bulletproof vests, four hand grenades, three bottles of dark Cuban rum, a glass eyeball.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Oh my gosh, this sounds like a great correlation.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

A skeleton's hand. What? So uh yeah, a hand. What? A skeleton's hand, and$38,000 in cash with along with$7,500 in gold coins from the United States mint. What the heck?

SPEAKER_00 45:32

So Dillinger and how big was this bag?

SPEAKER_03 45:37

It must have been like you remember how they used to have like those old steamer trunks for their luggage? Yep, like it would have to be something. It's like a body bag.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

It had to be big, yeah, more like a body bag because it was huge. No, some Thompson submachine guns aren't super huge, they're about the length of my forearm. Okay, so there's three of those. But a Winchester rifle is the length of my arm.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

And so like you have that, like, so you got three of those. You have body armor in there.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

Grenades, grenades, a glass eyeball. You gotta have the rum.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Right, the rum in 38,000 in cash and plus more gold coins. Yep. Like this thing had to have been a massive bag. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's so heavy. So, like, hey guy, is he's like dragging this thing on the ground that's like the size of his car. What you got in the bag?

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Nothing. Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

It's it's real light. Just give me a minute.

SPEAKER_02 46:37

Can I have one of those luggage carriers?

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Bellman.

SPEAKER_03 46:44

What about the Bellboy then?

SPEAKER_00 46:46

I need I need six Bellman, please.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

No reason. So, but most of that money, along with the gold coins, actually disappeared and has never actually been found. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Okay, I want to know whose skeleton hand that was. I don't know. Maybe it was his like partner in crime, and he's like, screw you, I'm taking it all. Right?

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Or did it belong to does it belong to the guy with the eye?

SPEAKER_03 47:10

Probably. Or it was somebody he was part of his gang, but he caught stealing from him. Could be. And so chopped off his hand for stealing. Could be. So yeah, and then like they have like so some of the names of his gang was Russell Clark, known as Killer. Charles uh Macley, known as The Knife, Harry Pierpoint, known as Gunner, and the ringleader, Don Dillinger John Dillinger, also known as Dapper. So they were all arrested by two the two Southern police officers, and what was short-lived and of their freedom and soon to be repeated nationwide manhunts for them all over again. So the men were all transferred to another state to stand trial for their many murders and escapes from prison, um, and then went right back to the road to commit more crimes. So I'm guessing this is before the Hotel Congress.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

Because they kept escaping.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

So here's an interesting thing. John Dillinger's nickname was Dapper.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

He died in the 30s.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

Yes. Dapper Dan.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

He's the is it he could he be the Dapper guy? Seersucker suit, top hat, very dapper. And they just don't realize that they're seeing Dillinger because you know, if you showed me, if you show me a picture of Dillinger right now and a list of people, I wouldn't be able to pick him out. Yeah, I wouldn't be able to pick him out.

SPEAKER_03 48:49

That's his actual wanted poster back then. Yeah. So and we will post that.

SPEAKER_00 48:59

Yeah. But yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup. If you if you pick if you had like other people, Bugsy, Capone, Dillinger, uh Machine Gunner, Machine Gun Kelly. But if you posted them up and said, which one of this is Dillinger?

SPEAKER_03 49:18

You wouldn't be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

No.

SPEAKER_03 49:19

You might. You never know.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Maybe. Doubtful.

SPEAKER_03 49:22

Anyways, when they kind of found all these items, you know, the grenades and the guns and glass eyeball. And so the Tucson Police Department actually kept all the items found in the luggage. But over time, the only remaining items that can actually be accounted for are the machine guns, which are on display at the Tucson Police Department headquarters.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

So you're telling me so the cops kept the$38,000 in cash.

SPEAKER_03 49:44

And the$7,500 in gold coins coins from the U.S.

SPEAKER_00 49:48

And the grenade. They just put them in lockup in evidence and they just disappeared.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Happens actually often.

SPEAKER_00 49:58

I'm sure. I am dying of not surprised.

SPEAKER_03 50:02

So here's something that's kind of interesting that has to do with the skeletal hand. So over the years, since the events surrounding the capture of Dillinger's gang, right? Some of the current and past employees of the hotel club Congress have actually reported feeling a skeleton's hand touch their shoulders and necks during their years while working at the hotel. How do they know it's a skeleton hand? Probably because it feels like really kind of hard and bony instead of like soft. Flesh.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Soft and because you know when you get touched. Like if you got touched with a stick. Yeah. Well, like you know, when you get touched by a ghost, it's like soft and feathery feels like. Versus Sometimes. In general. Depends on where they're touching you. And versus something more solid, maybe?

SPEAKER_03 50:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 50:57

Like small. I don't know. How would you I don't know. I mean the Or they're just assuming that it's a skeleton hand because of the rumors. And that's that's kind of more where my mind goes.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

It could be an old bony man's hand, which would be kind of skeletal in a sense.

SPEAKER_03 51:16

But either one of those. It kind of gets better because then they refer to the glass eyeball and they say it's still said to be heard moving across the floors like the colour.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

I was gonna say it was like rolling down the hallway.

Cuban Rum Apparition And Vanishing Proof

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Yeah, rolling across the floors of the kitchen and along the top of bars really late at night, long after closing time and during the cleanup hours. How do you know it's not actually just like a phantom marble? And why is it a glass eyeball?

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Again, it's probably the the rumors, right? But could you imagine just like in order for that to happen, if it's residual, that means he just sat there at the bars rolling the eyeball back and forth across the bar.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

It's like, play catch. We're drunk. Catch this, right?

SPEAKER_00 51:58

You remember when Joan lost his eye? Nah, I got a ear. Catch.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

So kind of some more recent hauntings. So on November 1st of 1987, there was an old gray-haired man, and he was wearing like a very tattered black suit, and he appeared at the bar late night, and it was really near closing time. And from his jacket, from under his jacket, he pulls out an old, very old bottle of real uh Cuban rum. Remember the rum in the thing? So the bartender then reminded this guy that he could not bring his own bottle into the bar. And then this mysterious man then rented a room up on the second floor, paying the front desk clerk with some old United States currency, and invited the bartender along with other employees there at the time, up to have a drink in his room later. After drinking, talking for well over an hour with employees, as if he had once lived or stayed at the hot stayed at the hotel for a long time, the old man said he was going to take a shower and asked them all to come back in half an hour. So, I mean, did they not know that this, like, who is this guy? Is he a ghost? Is he real? Like, because they went up to his room and drank with them.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Well, the fact that he was talking to them for as long as he was, I would assume that they wouldn't even think twice if it was a ghost or not.

SPEAKER_03 53:25

So they left so this guy could shower and they were gonna come back in half an hour. So upon their return to the room, it was completely empty with like no signs that anybody had ever been there. Like nothing in the room was out of place, nothing had been used, and the glasses they had all drank from were clean and unused.

SPEAKER_02 53:45

Well, that makes me wonder what about the money that he gave them. Right? Is it did it disappear? Right.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

The trash can was empty, and a quick check with the desk clerk downstairs revealed that no one had left the hotel to his knowledge. So quickly the desk clerk became really curious about this old man and checked the man's sign-in card. Um, because he had actually watched this guy fill it out at the counter with an ink pen that was actually still on the counter. And unexplainably, the card was completely blank. And so the clerk then used his key and opened up the cash register, but quickly had found that the old uh all the old large-size United State currency was not there. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

So Dillinger came to visit.

SPEAKER_03 54:32

If it was Dillinger, it was an old gray-haired man in an old tattered black suit that had the old Cuban rum. Now, was it his skeletal hand and eyeball that Dillinger took? I mean, as like mementos, like was had he one time been a part of the gang?

SPEAKER_00 54:48

And it's hard to say. Right. I mean, I know Dillinger died young because he was killed by gunned down by the police. But there again, though, spirits can appear as they want. Sure. And so if he wanted to show up as an old man, he could.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

I mean, I suppose. I don't know why he would, but then again, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

But who's gonna have Cuban rum? Well, I mean, I would have traded the guy, but of course, he, you know, he invited everybody up to drink in his room, which is highly against hotel regulations these days.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

And this was in 1997. Yeah, it's not like it was back in the day when maybe they were all looking for a good time. Maybe it was a slow night. But, anyways, you can uh go to their website for this hotel, the Congress Hotel in Tucson, Arizona, and you can request a haunted room and you can stay there.

SPEAKER_02 55:47

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

How many rooms have they got and how much would it take to rent out every room?

SPEAKER_03 55:52

Let's see. We I don't know, but uh of the haunted rooms they listed, what was there? Four? There was four.

Planning A Southern Arizona Haunted Road Trip

SPEAKER_02 55:58

Yeah, and they had the smallest room that we heard of was 412 versus four or two twelve two twelve and two forty-two. So there has to be I'm assuming about fifty rooms, maybe at least.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

It's a pretty good sized building. Yeah. Would be very interesting because the third floor isn't there anymore.

SPEAKER_02 56:18

No.

SPEAKER_00 56:20

But that's the roof. Is the roof haunted?

SPEAKER_02 56:24

Yeah, I wonder if they hear footsteps on the stairs. That's what I was gonna say. I wonder if they hear people walking around at the end. See, but what's interesting is when I went to Gettysburg, I stayed in a haunted hotel that was there. It was a bed and breakfast that was there um during the war. And we heard footsteps on the roof, yeah, but there was no floor above. So, but I know they have people like on lookout and things like that. That so it makes you wonder, like, even though that one didn't even have a floor, right? And I still heard footsteps on the roof versus a building that actually had a third floor or had that floor above, why wouldn't you? Sure. Yeah. Even if it's just residual.

SPEAKER_03 57:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:22

Totally. But, anyways, it's you know, it's one for people to add to their bucket list and go say. They also have the uh Jerome Hotel in Jerome, Arizona that's really haunted as well. So there, you know, there's a couple good places.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

Also, if you're not familiar with the geography of Arizona, from Tucson to umstone, it's only about a two and a half hour drive.

SPEAKER_03 57:53

I don't even remember it being that long, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:56

Well, that's because that's because we went that's because we went from Fort Wachuca.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Right. But there's also Biz uh Bisbee. That's uh, you know, you can go in the Queen Anne mine.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 58:06

I think that's 1880.

SPEAKER_00 58:08

There's a lot of fun haunted stuff down in southern Arizona.

SPEAKER_03 58:11

There is. Yeah, so you you can make like a trip of it for sure. And hit a few places and stay at a few haunted places, go on the Queen Anne mine tour, go to Tombstone, you know, go to Big Nose Cates and Tombstone, the Bird Cage Theater. Um, so many good places to go cemetery. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 58:34

You know what's funny? Is I've been to Tombstone a dozen times. Never once did I go to the OK Corral or Boot Hill.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Yeah. Really? I would think the OK Corral would be one of the first places to go in Tombstone.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

Nope, I went to Big Nose Cates and got some food.

SPEAKER_03 58:53

Well, yeah, you and I went too to Big Nose Cates and a Buffalo Burger. And that's how I knew about it.

SPEAKER_00 58:58

That's how I knew about it. We went there and we had we had we ate and drank in the bars and the restaurants that are out there.

SPEAKER_03 59:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 59:06

And we that's what we did when we went to Tombstone.

SPEAKER_03 59:08

Yeah, you and the guys. But yeah, but then you and Big Nose Cates, you have like the staircase that goes down. This like curly staircase.

SPEAKER_00 59:16

To an actual mine.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

Where's where this uh old prospector had a bed down there, and he like dug a hole next to his bed down. Oh my goodness. So you can go down there and you can see it. That's wild. So cool. And the bird cage theater is pretty cool too.

SPEAKER_00 59:33

Yeah. So the the neat the really cool thing about the Burch Cage Theater is that the poker table that they played. That they played. Um, if you've watched where um Tombstone, the the movie movie Tombstone where Doc Holiday and and then were at the poker table playing cards, that poker table is downstairs in the Birdcage Theater. It was the longest. Running continuous poker game. It was like a week's a week wait to get onto the table.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

I can't remember what the price is.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:12

Ten thousand dollars their money.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:16

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

They would wait a month to get onto this table.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:21

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:23

Pretty amazing. So Arizona, to sum it up, Arizona does have a lot of good places to investigate that aren't super far apart. So you could hit, like if you took like a week, you could hit a handful of locations.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

Several places down there.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:37

Easily. It'd be worth it. It'd totally be worth it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:41

But yeah, that's the Hotel Congress. So I had never heard of this one at all. No.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

Yeah, I haven't heard of it either. So if you said haunted Arizona, Tucson wouldn't even be on the list.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:55

So it's it's it's neat to find a place in in other in an in a city you're not expecting.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

Yeah, and there's a good amount of hauntings at this hotel. So it's worth, I think it would be worth a trip. Yeah. You know, stay in, like maybe stay a couple nights, stay in one room one night.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

I was gonna say you could stay for four nights and switch every night to a different.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:15

Oh, I think that would be awesome. Rent four rooms for four nights. Yeah. And we just each take a room.

unknown 1:01:20

That'd be so cool.

Wrap Up & Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

To sleep in for the night, but then we can investigate all four of them as we go and just see what happens and just leave uh cameras running.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

Yeah, that would be so funny. And digital recorders go all night, do like a 24-hour thing. Yes, you know, stay up all night and then sleep during the day. That's the way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:42

Oh, high school all over again.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:45

Uh, but with a twist. That's more like college days, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:48

Not high school. But it's with a twist because it's it's for ghosties, it's not just because we're, you know, college or something or how because we're young and drinking.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

Definitely not because of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Definitely not doing any of that. I never did any of that. Let's just put that out. I I didn't in high school.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

I mean, I didn't for the record, neither did I.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:07

Sure. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

Well, everybody, I hope you enjoyed uh this episode. Um, please like and subscribe. And as always, stay ghosty, my peeps.