Haunted By History - A Well Written Trip Back In Time

(Copyright: Craig Owens)

Every once in a while I get the urge to write a review of another author's works because I am compelled to share it with the world. This will be one of several blog posts that include my new favorite authors and their books. For my first review and interview post, I chose to cover Craig Owens' newest book, "Haunted By History, Volume 1."

This is not your traditional haunted history book by any means! In fact, the unique design and format of this book seems to be what caught my eye from the start. For one, the book is printed on some of the finest quality paper. It is truly a coffee table book you can keep forever, and trust me, you'll want to. Author, Craig Owens' choice of locations for his first volume of this series is nothing short of amazing.

It is clear that Owens' research on each hotel within his one book surpasses most, if not all other books that individually cover each one. The book is 393 pages of thoroughly vetted historical research, intriguing stories of paranormal experiences and best of all, incredibly ingenious photography.

Besides being a skilled storyteller, Owens is also a very accomplished photographer. Not only do you feel like you are pulled into each history with his writing, but you also feel as if you are peeking through a window into the past with each turn of the page, by viewing every photo still published within.

The eight hotels and inns covered within the book are as follows:

1. The Hotel Del Coronado
2. The Victorian Rose Bed and Breakfast
3. The Julian Gold Rush Hotel
4. The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa
5. The Alexandra Hotel
6. The Wyndham Garden Ventura Pierpont Inn
7. The Banning House Lodge
8. The Glen Tavern Inn

"Spooky Night" at Glen Tavern Inn, Copyright: Craig Owens.

Recently was able to speak to Craig Owens directly and he was kind enough to answer a few interview questions I had for him about "Haunted By History, Volume 1." 

J'aime (Q):  Craig, when did you decide to write "Haunted By History?"

Craig (A):  "The book project unofficially started in 2009, while I was doing a vintage photo shoot at the Mission Inn. Although I had heard that the Inn was haunted, I wasn't there to ghost hunt. I did, however bring a couple of audio recorders just in case something odd happened during my four-day stay there. Well, as you might have guessed, a few odd things did indeed happen. On my second day at the Mission Inn, I recorded a woman's voice inside my suite after hearing the sound of heels clacking in the upper loft area. Because I was alone at the time, the sounds startled me. But the most unsettling experience occurred after midnight on my last night there. As I walked across the courtyard on the fourth floor in front of the Inn's Alhambra Suite, I saw a short, two-dimensional, inky black shadow dressed in some kind of a cowl peeking around a corner from an adjacent hallway. At first, I thought it was a shadow, until it suddenly darted out of sight from the corner. Having never seen a ghost before, I tried to find a logical explanation for it, but I couldn't. It shook me up and after I returned home, I slept with the lights on for the next ten days. I also became very curious about the Inn's history apart from the information found on the Internet.

But my fascination with the paranormal isn't the sole reason for writing the book. I had non-paranormal reasons for writing it, too, such as my love for historic hotels. In 2006, Los Angeles had already lost the Ambassador Hotel. Thanks to the Great Recession a few years later, other hotels fell into dire straits.  In late 2010, a bank foreclosed on the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia. Around this time, another bank foreclosed on the Pierpont Inn in Ventura, California. 

So in 2011, I decided to create a coffee table book that called attention to a handful of these existing hotels and beds and breakfasts, and I wanted to celebrate each one for what they are: great places to travel back in time using the ol' imagination. But I didn't want HAUNTED BY HISTORY to be a rehash of information found in other books. I wanted to fact-check everything while conveying a sense of fun and history in a unique, unusual way." 

J'aime (Q): Which location's history was your favorite?

Craig (A): "My favorite is the Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Not only was it the city's first five-star hotel when it opened in 1906, but it later became the main social center of the West Coast motion picture film colony from 1914 to 1921. Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, D.W. Griffith, Buster Keaton all partied there. And yet, despite all its glamour and gaiety, wealthy people also checked into the hotel to carry out very unusual suicides."

J'aime (Q): So what are your plans for the future? Is there a Volume 2 in the works?

Craig (A): "Yes, I am working on a Volume 2, which covers the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, Culver Hotel, Aztec Hotel, Zane Grey Pueblo, Bella Maggiore Inn, Grand Colonial Hotel, Palomar  Inn and the Queen Mary. Obviously, I would love to continue with the series. There are plenty of photos to take, people to meet, research to conduct, and urban legends to expose. But the future of Haunted by History really depends on the audience. Do readers really  want to know the history of the place? Do they want to know if the ghost legends are real or are they cooked up for marketing? Do readers like my photos and do they conjure up a sense of fun and make people want to visit these hotels for themselves? Because Haunted by History requires a lot of research, and eye-catching photography, its future depends on those who love history, and the paranormal."

It is easy to see how passionate Craig Owens is with keeping the history accurate by his impeccable research. At the same time he still manages to keep his audience engaged with palatable writing and exquisite photography. My own opinion is that Haunted By History is a fantastic read from cover to cover.  The book itself is massive, so it will take you some time to read it all, but that is the best part of it.  The first night I began to read it, I read two chapters and put it down to enjoy on another evening. It took me almost two weeks to finish the book, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It is like a delightful box of chocolates that you want to hold on to and savor a little bit at a time. 

To purchase your copy of "Haunted By History, Volume 1," please head on over to Bizarre L.A.'s website or you can pick up a copy on Amazon, too.

(Copyright 2017- J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

Photos: Copyright, Craig Owens, Sad Hill, LLC. 

Who Was The Beautiful Stranger?- Part 4

Continued from Part 3 - Who Was The Beautiful Stranger?

"After receiving a telegram from the undertakers in regards to the body found in San Diego, Joseph Chandler, Kate Morgan’s grandfather, replied : “Bury her and send me statement.”  It appeared neither Kate’s husband, nor her own family had any intention of coming to California to claim the body, or to positively identify it. Nearly two weeks after her death, Coroner’s Kellar and Stetson made the call to document the dead woman as being “Kate Morgan,” and ruled  the death was a suicide, stating  that “Mrs. Kate came to her death in this County by a pistol shot inflicted by her own hand with suicidal intent.”

The death certificate was dated December 12, 1892, with her burial date on the document dated December 13, 1892.  Unclaimed and never truly identified by family or friends, the funeral for the woman who died at the Hotel Del Coronado on November 29, 1892, said to be Kate Morgan, took place at Johnson & Co.’s undertaking parlors.  After the services the casket was taken and interred at the Mount Hope Cemetery.  The grave would remain unmarked for almost a hundred years until author Alan May had a headstone placed marking her burial spot.

From its very beginning, this story has too many twists and turns to count. Although several authors have tried their best to unravel this mystery, the complete answers still seem to elude us, forever seemingly just out of our reach.  Neither Lizzie nor Kate brought luggage with them when they left. According to Kate’s employer, Mr. Grant, she took only a satchel with her when she left. There is no accounting of where she went between leaving the Grant’s and ending up in San Diego an entire day later. 

Yes, Kate was known for using aliases as it would seem. She used the name Katie Logan for the Grants, and Josie Brown for the Howards, even mentioning her sister was a Mrs. Anderson, and having a brother who was also a doctor!

So what about the three trunks left at the D Street Depot in National City? At the time, the newspapers reported that they were still there at the depot. According to the article, one of the keys found in “Lottie Bernard’s” effects in room 302 matched a key to the trunk, but the employees at the depot could not open it without proper permission from the authorities. Interestingly, the Los Angeles newspapers later mentioned that the three trunks were eventually claimed by its owners; however, there is never any further mention of the trunks or whether the owners were connected to the woman who died.

In both situations, neither the families of Lizzie Wylie nor the families of Kate Morgan made any effort or attempt to positively identify the dead woman. Although Lizzie’s mother stated that she had family in San Diego and that they would come to identify the body, no one ever did. The same can be said for Kate’s family. 

Maybe Joseph Chandler believed the body was of his granddaughter, or maybe he felt bad for the unclaimed woman who was abandoned in death, which could have prompted him to pay for the burial. I have often wondered, if Chandler had truly believed it was his  granddaughter, why not have the body sent back for burial? Had she shamed the family that much that he wanted nothing more to do with her? And even so, you would think  that he would have at least wanted a proper marker on her grave, wherever she was interred.

The event where Lottie sent Mr. Gomer to wire requesting funds from Mr. Allen at the bank in Hamburg, is definitely a piece of the puzzle in favor of the Kate Morgan theory, since Allen was in one way or another related through marriage to Tom Morgan’s family.  Still,  it was a Mrs.  Bernard asking for money, not Kate Morgan. Allen stated that he went to school with her husband, who would have been Mr. Bernard. How would Allen have known that Lottie was Kate, especially given the vague telegram with no other mention of who she was? Oddly enough this could actually be just an interesting coincidence unless Mr. Allen was aware of Kate using various aliases.

Also, what was she doing there in Coronado in the first place? Who was this Mr. Anderson that she was planning to meet, or planning to confront? The woman in Coronado was said to have gone to the Hotel Brewster first before registering at the Hotel Del Coronado on Thursday, November 24, 1892. The clerk stated that she inquired if Mr. & Mrs. Anderson had checked in. When he told her no, she left abruptly, stating, “They must have gone on to Coronado.” 

Did Kate know a Mr. Anderson? Was his wife’s name Louisa? Is that how she acquired the tin that was found in her trunk in Los Angeles? And what about Joseph Jones? He claimed that the couple who he had seen, rode from Denver to Los Angeles and recognized the woman at the Orange station . He also saw her again at the hotel.  How could that be Kate, when she was in Los Angeles the entire time until leaving on Wednesday the 23rd?

Among the items found in room 302 was an invitation to the Hotel Del Coronado, signed by Lillian Russell and Louise Leslie Carter. 

"Denman Thompson, the Old Homestead. And "Frank" is written here four times, and "Lottie Anderson Bernard," and "Mrs. Lottie Bernard," "Lottie Anderson Bernard, Detroit," and then on this paper I found "I merely heard of that man, I do not know him." Here is an invitation — here is an invitation to the Hotel del Coronado, signed by Louise Leslie Carter and Lillian Russell."

Denman Thompson was a playwright and actor. He was very famous for his play, "The Old Homestead" which made it's debut in 1886. He was in the social circle of theatre actors and actresses. This stood out to me because of the second item in her belongings that also was tied to Theater folk. That was the invitation to the Hotel Del Coronado, which was signed by Louise Leslie Carter and Lillian Russell, both prominent and famous actresses of the time. Did Lottie have a personal invitation to the hotel, or could it have been clever advertising as author Terry Girardot suggests in his book? I have searched for ephemera for that time period connecting those actresses to any sort of advertising for the hotel and have come up with nothing. 

Another interesting thing to note was the mention of a telegram from Mt. Vernon from a Mr. Harry Bernard requesting a description of “Miss Bernard.” The same time this telegram came, another unidentified body of a woman in Mt. Vernon had  just been discovered, Miss Ella Newton, which is another chapter in this book.  Was this just a random coincidence?

It seems that there are too many factors to consider when trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. There are just too many missing elements to tie it all together to create a  clear picture.  We do not know for certain who Mr. Anderson was, and we do not know if Albert Allen, Joseph Jones or even Frank Heath were involved for that matter, or if any of them could have been “Mr. Anderson.” 

 The last part of this mystery that just doesn’t add up is the cause of death.  Only a fraction of the many writers who have researched this case believed that the woman found dead in Coronado was murdered.  Being that the death certificate states it was a suicide, most people take that at face value and accept it as the cause of death.  I, on the other hand, do not believe it happened that way.  Remember, Lottie had purchased a .44 caliber Bulldog pistol and two bits worth of cartridges at Nichol’s gunshop where Martines Chick worked in downtown San Diego. Then she went to Frank Heath’s store and asked about purchasing cartridges there.  The gun that was found next to her body was identified by Chick as looking similar to the gun he sold her on Monday the 28th, but he could not be certain. Still, the entry wound, and lack of exit wound on the body is consistent with shot of a .44 caliber Bulldog.

According to gun expert Bob Shell, the .44 Bulldog is a very low powered round and the bullet would not exit. “It would not cause extensive damage due to the low velocity involved.  As for rusting, it would rust fairly rapidly especially if there was no oil on it...... The process of bluing is just a form of rusting so overnight there would be a light coat of rust on it. Depending on a couple of factors, the 44 will leave a little larger hole then a 38 or 40.”   After speaking to Shell, he made it clear that the doctor should have been able to see the small differences.

“Depending on certain factors, the entrance wound could close up due to loose skin or other physical factors that the victim may have had.  In other words there is no cut & dry method to determine an entrance wound with similar size rounds."  

Shell also went on to state, “In all likelihood, she would have held the gun within six inches of her head. Further back would have increased the chances of not getting a good kill shot especially if she was not experienced with handguns. There would definitely be powder burns, and depending on what type of gun, they would be prevalent.   In 1892, both black powder & smokeless was used though the odds are she had black powder which would really leave a lot of residue, especially a larger .44 such as a Russian or .44-.40, both common.”

Dr. Mertzman examined the bullet entry wound, and never once mentioned any sort of powder burns on her head or marks on her hand which should have been noted in the inquest had there been any apparent markings or burns on the body.  This lack of information leads me to believe that someone shot her from a farther distance, just enough to leave her body free of powder burns. Another thing to consider in all of this is that the two bits worth of cartridges Lottie purchased were never found.

If she had planned to kill herself, in all likeliness she would have loaded the weapon in the privacy of her own room.  In 1892, two bits would have bought her 10 rounds.  We know that the cartridges were never mentioned to have been found on or near her body when her body was discovered. Also, when the coroner came to investigate her room, those items were not found in her personal effects. So where did the other bullets go? Nowhere in the inquest record did anyone state whether or not the pistol was examined to see if it had even been discharged or not.

Kate Morgan or not, I believe that the woman who died on the northwest steps of the Hotel Del Coronado on November 29, 1892, was murdered and did not commit suicide.  I could devote an entire book restating each and every fact and clue regarding this one story alone, and I feel that I would never truly solve this conundrum.                                   

Some of you will read the story and come to the conclusion that Lottie was definitely Kate Morgan, while maybe a few of you will even think she could have been Lizzie Wylie. And then there will be others, such as myself, who will never truly be satisfied with this story, and who will go on believing that the true identity of Lottie Bernard can never be a certainty, and the story behind her death, will more than likely remain a mystery for the ages. 

If by chance somewhere out there, perhaps in an old creaky and dusty attic, tossed beneath books and family heirlooms in an old trunk, there could be one more clue to this seemingly impossible case, then I hope to be alive to see that day. Until then, we must accept what information is out there now.

Was Lottie Bernard really Kate Morgan? I cannot say either way. In the end, the woman who died on the back steps of the Hotel Del Coronado was a beautiful lady who died much too young.  No matter who you believe it was who died that day, let us pay our respects to her memory. She deserves to be remembered just as anyone else.  Rest in Peace to the Beautiful Stranger a.k.a. Lottie Bernard, whoever you were."----

 from the book "Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered" by J'aime Rubio (ISBN-13:  978-1523981175)

(Copyright - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com

published blog in 2013, published book in 2016)

Sources: 

U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, 1880; Detroit City Directories, 1890, 1891; Transcript of Coroner’s Inquest, 1892; Certificate of Death, December 12, 1892; San Diego Union, (1892:  11/27, 11/30, 12/1, 12/2, 12/3, 12/7, 12/12); Los Angeles Herald, (1892: 12/1, 12/4, 12/9, 12/10); The Rock Island Daily Argus, December 5, 1892; Sacramento Union, December 3, 1892, December 5, 1892; The San Francisco Morning Call, December 2, 1892;  Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1892, December 3, 1892, December 4, 1892, December 8, 1892; U.S. National Library of Medicine; Correspondence with Bob Shell, gun expert; San Francisco Call, December 2, 1892, December 4, 1892; Salt Lake Herald, December 4, 1892; “The Ghost of the Hotel Del Coronado, The True Story of Kate Morgan”- Terry Girardot (by permission of the author).

Who Was The Beautiful Stranger? Part 3

Continued from Part 2 - Who Was The Beautiful Stranger?

"So was this gentleman that Jones saw, John Longfield?  I truly doubt it. You see, Longfield actually went back to his hometown of Cleveland to work when he left town, and he was not accompanied by Miss Lizzie Wyllie. In fact, Longfield's wife claimed that when she asked him about Lizzie, he explained that he was not with her, he had no idea what anyone was talking about and that Lizzie had went back to Canada.

Elizabeth Wyllie, Lizzie's mother, was from Scotland and had made her way to the U.S. through Canada. The newspapers mention Lizzie's sister as a May Wyllie however I believe she was actually Mary Wyllie who was born in Canada, which could have been where Lizzie was born, thus no records of birth in our U.S. databases. As for Longfield, if he is the same John Longfield that I traced, he was born in Cleveland and lived in Detroit.

According to census, marriage, birth and death records,  Longfield returned to Detroit and stuck around Michigan for the remainder of his life. He was married, had two kids by 1899 and stayed with his wife the rest of his life, dying on August 22, 1938 in Michigan. 

The pieces of the puzzle of Miss Lizzie Wyllie were starting to come together. She left with no money to afford a long cross-country trip on train all the way to San Diego. Perhaps she went back to Canada, being that she hadn't even been in the U.S for more than a few years.  My guess is that the Wyllie family found out that she was still alive. That explains why they never came to identify or recover the remains. Possibly Lizzie eventually wired her mother and that could explain why the Wyllie’s faded into the background and Lizzie's name was never mentioned again in the papers.

This was a time when scandals, such as the disappearance of a daughter or the body of a young woman being discovered at an exclusive resort hotel, were uncommon. These type of stories made headlines nationwide. It was only natural that the two stories would somehow intertwine when the identity of the dead woman hadn't been discovered yet.  So, if it wasn't Lizzie Wyllie that died at the Hotel Del Coronado, then who could it be? The story certainly twists once again when the name of Kate Morgan starts to appear in the papers. Could it be that they discovered the true identity of the "Beautiful Stranger"? Or could this be another dead end?

When news broke in the papers about an unidentified woman that died in San Diego, there were a few people who came forward mentioning that they had known or employed a young woman who met her description. A lady in Orange County named Florence Howard wrote the coroner which the letter was even published in the Los Angeles Herald stating:

"Dear Sir,--- Would you be kind enough to send me as soon as possible a very careful description of the young woman who committed suicide at the Hotel del Coronado about the 29th of November, as I have good reason to believe that she was the same woman that stayed with us last summer for nine weeks. I judge from statements seen in the San Francisco and Los Angeles papers. She represented herself as being Miss Josie Brown, aged 24, of Detroit. She said her sister's name was a Mrs. Anderson. There was a young man here part of the time who said he was Miss Brown's brother, Dr. Brown of Detroit, although he had been in Minneapolis.  Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain yours,

respectfully,  (Miss) Florence S. Howard."--

Florence Howard was not the only one to inquire about this young woman. Strangely, another lady came forward with a trunk, claiming that it was in fact her employee that must have died at the Hotel Del Coronado that night.  Mrs. L.A. Grant of 917 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, came forward claiming that she had employed Katie Logan in her household as a maid. She stated that Katie mentioned she was separated from her husband who was a gambler but never mentioned any more about it.

When it came to Katie's disappearance, Mrs. Grant claimed that Katie had left on November 23rd and promised to return early in the morning to prepare for Thanksgiving, but she never returned. She was convinced that the items in the trunk would link her to the woman found dead in Coronado, and so the authorities began looking into yet another possible lead.

After opening the trunk, it was apparent that Katie Logan’s name was actually Kate Morgan.  Found among the belongings in the abandoned trunk, was  a tin with the name Louisa Anderson on it. Inside of it were photographs of several people, including a man with a beard and only the “Visalia” written on the back. A few photographs of children, a lock of hair that was marked “Elizabeth Morgan.”  The marriage certificate of Kate Farmer and Tom Morgan, dated December 30, 1885, and a photograph which was said to be of the Kate herself.

The newspapers were all over this new and incredible find, but the Los Angeles Herald’s opinion differed from what most authors state today.  The description of the photograph found in the trunk did not appear to match the likeness of the beautiful young woman who stayed at the Hotel del Coronado.

According to the newspaper, there was a "cabinet size photograph of Mrs. Morgan, found among others, shows her to be a woman of about 28 years of age, black eyes, large ears, rather large open face and somewhat course features; her mouth is rather large and lips thick. The photograph contained no marks and had evidently been taken recently. The photograph does not denote the appearance of a woman accustomed to stopping at first-class hotels as a guest, or one who wears lace shawls; neither does it show her to be pretty, and the features certainly are not those of a highly educated woman."-- Los Angeles Herald, December 9, 1892.

The opinion of the writer, that her "features certainly are not those of a highly educated woman,“  is  absurd. You cannot tell one's intellect by their appearance physically. However, you can tell a person's class and stature in society by the way they carry themselves and according to their dress. If Kate was well-to-do, why did she take up work as a domestic in Los Angeles? That question alone might make you wonder about her current financial state.

I have also wondered about the wardrobe Kate may have owned, and what she might have been wearing when she left the Grant residence in Los Angeles on November 23rd? Wouldn’t the Grant family have noticed if their maid was wearing elegant clothes when she left the house? Or could she have purchased them elsewhere? She did not take any luggage with her, or a change of clothes, and Mr. Grant said himself that she only left with a satchel.  And where did she go for an entire day, since “Lottie” did not check into the hotel at Coronado until Thursday the 24th?

Around the time the name Kate Morgan started to make the news, an interesting letter was published in the papers.  Signed only as A. D. Swarts, the letter offered contact information on Kate Morgan’s family, including her husband Tom, and her grandfather Joseph Chandler in Hamburg, Iowa.

                 

Terry Girardot, the grand nephew of Tom Morgan, Kate Morgan’s husband, states that he believes the claim made by San Diego Chief of Police, that the woman found at the Hotel Del Coronado was without a doubt, Kate Morgan.  I had the pleasure of corresponding with Mr. Girardot, who is adamant about the story. He insists that Kate Morgan left her husband Tom, for his much older step-brother, Albert Allen.  According to genealogical information shared with me by Girardot, Tom Morgan’s father, Marsena Morgan married Allen’s step-mother, Emily Allen in 1871.  After Emily and Marsena Morgan married, the two families were tied to one another. He also pointed out that  G.L. Allen, another one of the Allen siblings, happened to be the man who wired Lottie Bernard money to the Hotel Del Coronado. 

According to Girardot, there were notations on the widely circulated photo of Kate Morgan stating that she had left her husband Tom, and ran off with another man.  Girardot shared with me scanned copies of the back of the photograph as well as older notations from Tom Morgan’s daughter which insinuate that Kate left Tom for his step brother, but it gives no name of which one.  Given this information, it is not hard to imagine the amount of embarrassment Kate caused both her family and Tom Morgan’s family.  Also, where was Mr. Albert Allen in this story? Did Kate leave him, too, or was he possibly the man she had been seen with at the station in Orange? "---  from the book "Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered" by J'aime Rubio (ISBN-13:  978-1523981175)

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE WITH "PART 4 of "WHO WAS THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGER?" 

(Copyright - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com

published blog in 2013, published book in 2016)

Who Was The Beautiful Stranger? Part 2

Continued from Part 1. - Who Was The Beautiful Stranger?

"Sometime soon after speaking with Gomer and West, Lottie had managed to go down to the drug store again and spoke to Mr. Fisher. 
                 

“On Monday afternoon she came in again, and walked up and down the floor, and looked as though she was still suffering. I said, "It seems too bad for you to go over in town and you suffering from neuralgia in this stormy weather. " She said, "I am compelled to go. I forgot my checks, and I have got to go over and identify my trunks, personally. " She went out, and that was the last I saw of her until I saw her dead, lying on the steps."--T.J. Fisher.

On Monday afternoon, November 28th, Lottie ventured out to the Gaslamp quarter in San Diego’s downtown district.  The December 1, 1892, edition of the San Diego Union stated that Lottie took the electric motor to San Diego, also mentioning that she was so weak and frail that the conductor had to lift her off of the car. Based on the timeline that most people go by, it is assumed that Lottie first went to the ship chandlery store and spoke to Frank Heath, inquiring on how to purchase "cartridges" for a revolver, and that he told her to go to Chick's gun shop in order to find what she needed. But after looking carefully at the inquest report, I found that the times are off by an hour. 

Also, it seems strange that she would inquire about purchasing cartridges, when she hadn’t even purchased a gun yet, nor did she ask him about purchasing one. If we are to go by the times stated in the report, it shows that Lottie first visited N.D. Nichol’s gunsmith shop, where Martines Chick was employed. According to testimony by Chick and an eyewitness,  she arrived at the shop between the hours of 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. in the  afternoon.  After purchasing a .44 caliber bulldog pistol and two bits worth of cartridges, she inquired how to load and discharge the weapon, even asking if it was hard to pull the trigger. Chick showed her how easy it was, and she tried it. 

 W.P. Walters, who was in the store at the time, agreed that he saw a woman, who appeared to look just like the deceased, who had come into the store and inquired about buying a pistol. His testimony seemed to fit with Chick's testimony about her being there at that time. Walters claimed that he was concerned by the quiet demeanor of the lady and that she may use the pistol to hurt herself. He noticed her well enough and seemed so concerned about her that he asked the man outside the doorway if he had seen where she went from there.

"She went south on Fifth Street, and I stepped to the door, and asked a gentleman who was standing at the door where she went and he said she had went into the Combination, he thought. I stopped there a few seconds, and then I saw her go straight diagonally across to Schiller and Murtha's, and that is the last I seen."-- W.P. Walters.

According to the San Diego Directory, the ship chandlery store was located at 614-622 Fifth Street, and Schiller and Murtha's was located on the Southwestern corner of Fifth and H Street (where Market Street is now). That is the very same corner and same side of the street that the chandlery store was located. More than likely both business were probably next door to one another, therefore it could have been easy from where he was standing, to think she went into Schiller and Murtha's when in fact she had walked into Heath's store. 

 But if Lottie went into Heath’s store after she had already purchased a gun and ammunition, that leads us to another question. What was the real purpose of her visit to that particular shop? And furthermore,  if she went to the gun shop first, where she purchased a pistol and two bits worth of cartridges, why in the world would she visit Frank Heath’s shop to ask if he sold pistol cartridges, too?

According to the San Diego Directory, Frank Heath lived at 1560 Union Street in San Diego, not 1516 Union as the inquest had recorded.  Heath claimed that the woman who fit the description of the deceased had visited his shop on Monday afternoon between 4p.m. and 5 p.m. 

“She asked me if I kept revolver cartridges...I told her we did not, and directed her where she could get them...She came in and spoke to me three or four times before I could understand her, she spoke so low. She seemed a little nervous...she walked very slow, as if she felt sick, and she looked very bad, in her general appearance. She was well dressed.”— Frank Heath

There wasn’t much to his testimony, yet this one person’s quick recollection of his encounter with Lottie has always bugged me.  You see, Frank Heath is the only person in this story whose first name was written on a piece of paper by Lottie. Is it significant? There really is no way to know. It could very well be just a huge coincidence, but this one thing has continued to bother me. Why did the name Frank appear on an envelope in Lottie’s hotel room? And why was it written four times? In my personal experience, it when a woman writes a man’s name on a paper, over and over, it is usually an emotional reason, such as a love interest.

Did Frank Heath leave anything important out of his statement during the inquest hearing? Could he have known the deceased, and chose to omit that information? Could she have actually purchased the gun and then went to visit Frank Heath’s store in order to speak to him about another matter? 

                 

What could she have had to say to him? Did Heath know Mr. Anderson? Could she have been there asking about Mr. Anderson’s whereabouts?  That is one thing to ponder, although we will never know for sure.  Heath’s statement was short and gave very little information. Whether he was honest about it or willfully withheld the truth is uncertain. Unfortunately, that one name scribbled on an envelope in a dead woman’s room was never looked into further than the brief mention in the inquest.  We will never know just who “Frank” was, or why Lottie scribbled it over and over on a piece of paper before she died.

Physician and Surgeon, B.F. Mertzman was questioned during the inquest, giving the details of the examination of the corpse. The evidence, or lack of evidence to many claims by several writers is worth mentioning.

“I made an examination of the remains, and found a gun-shot wound in the right temple region, just between the ear and the out edge of the eyebrow, and about half an inch high up above that line drawn here. The ball entered into the brain, and that is the only opening I could find—no exit at all….I took a probe, and it entered almost at an angle, about that...a little forward and a little upward.”— B.F. Mertzman, M.D.

When questioned about the caliber of the gun, the doctor stated that he believed the gun shot wound was caused by a .38 or .40 caliber gun, and that it caused an internal hemorrhage. The doctor never mentions any powder burns on her skin. If she had been shot at such a close range,  there would have been evidence of this that even the rain couldn’t just simply wash away. Neither the doctor, the coroner, nor the staff from the hotel ever mentioned seeing any sort of burn marks on the face of the dead woman. 

And what about the theory that she was pregnant? Why did the doctor not mention anything about that in his statement? An unidentified doctor who was interviewed for the press,  stated that he had examined her and saw signs of pregnancy, but refused to give his name to the newspapers. Could she have been pregnant? Of course, anything is possible. But given the fact that the physician who officially examined the body left no mention of the possibility, there is no way we can ever be sure.

As the days went by, it became much more clear that no one could truly identify the deceased. No friend or family member came to identify or claim her body, so the speculation continued to spread that Lottie A. Bernard may have been an alias.

As I had previously mentioned in my blog several years ago, I had always firmly believed that Lottie was exactly who she said she was.  According the 1890 & 1891 Detroit Directory, there was in fact a Charlotte Barnard living at 351 High Street West. Since she literally disappeared off of any further directories I could find, and I found no other trace of her at the time, I assumed that could have been the link I was searching for.  

Unfortunately, it turns out that upon my reinvestigation of this case for this book, I found that the listing in the 1890 & 1891 Detroit Directory at 351 High Street West residence proved useless, as further research and cross referencing has shown this to be another Charlotte Barnard, and not the same “Lottie” that I had been searching for.

Although I was back to square one, I still felt very strongly that the identity of the woman found on the northwestern steps of the Hotel Del Coronado was out there somewhere just waiting to be discovered.  According to the newspapers of the time, there were two different women mentioned as possibly being the “Beautiful Stranger.” Their names were Lizzie Wylie and Kate Morgan. The question was, which one was she?

Within days, the staff, authorities and newspapers were growing more and more unsure of this woman’s identity. The story became even more perplexing when they received word from Detroit that a young lady by the name of Lizzie Wylie had gone missing several weeks prior, and who seemed to fit the young lady's description.  Mrs. Wyllie, Lizzie’s mother, claimed that she feared her daughter, after been fired from her job, had run away with a married man after the affair had come out in the open. 

Lizzie had been working at a book bindery company known as Wynn & Hammond in Detroit, when she started an illicit affair with her foreman, John Longfield.  After the affair had been made public, the company fired both Longfield and Wyllie to make an example of them. Not long after this happened, Lizzie's family claimed that a gentleman called their home and told Lizzie that he was leaving and going to California. Lizzie made some comments to her family that she may leave to go look for work elsewhere, even as far as California but never mentioned when she would be leaving. Her mother claimed that Lizzie told her she was going downtown to run errands and that was the last she heard of her. She didn't take anything with her, and was "penniless" the day she disappeared.

The authorities sent a sketch of the face of the deceased young woman to Lizzie's mother, where she confirmed that it was her "Lizzie" and that their family in Pasadena would arrive shortly in San Diego to properly identify her and recover her remains. Interestingly, there are no records that any relatives ever came to identify her. Had this young lady been Lizzie Wyllie, then where on earth was her male companion? Why was he not in Coronado with her when she died?

A telegram from Lizzie's sister arrived asking if the body of the girl in Coronado had short hair, a black corset and a large black hat. Although the girl found at the Coronado hotel did have a black corset and a large black hat, her hair was medium in length, not short. Also, the body found did not have pierced ears, while it was stated that Lizzie Wyllie’s ears were pierced.

According to newspapers, a man by the name of Joseph Jones claimed that he had seen the woman more than once. First, on the train from Denver to Omaha and then again at Orange in California. At the station, he saw the pair fighting and the lady pleading with the man before he exited the train, leaving her alone. Jones mentioned seeing the young lady again at the hotel, where he also was staying, and recognized her from the previous times on the train. "---- from the book "Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered" by J'aime Rubio (ISBN-13:  978-1523981175)

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE WITH "PART 3 of "WHO WAS THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGER?" 

(Copyright - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com

published blog in 2013, published book in 2016)

Who Was The Beautiful Stranger? Part 1

"In all the years that I have been investigating and writing about the past, no one story has perplexed me as much as this case.  At one point, I had truly believed that I may have found a key piece of evidence pointing to the true identity of the “Beautiful Stranger,” whose body was found on the north steps of the Hotel Del Coronado on November 29, 1892, but after further research, even that has proven to be an unfortunate dead end.

There have been several books written about the mysterious guest who died at this historic hotel, but with each book comes different theories, over-the-top speculations and story line plots that lead to nowhere.  I have to admit, even I got caught up in my own possible theory for a time period, truly believing that I had figured out at least one part of this ever eluding mystery.

The morning after a terrible storm that swept through San Diego and relentlessly engulfed the small island of Coronado, the body of a woman was discovered on the north steps of the Hotel Del Coronado near the beach.  It was approximately 7:30 a.m., on November 29th, 1892, when one of the hotel employees came upon the ghastly sight. David Cone discovered the corpse while trimming the electric lights.

 “It was lying on the steps, with its feet towards the ocean, head on the steps, almost on the top step. There was blood on the step. The clothes were all wet, and the body seemed to have been lying there quite awhile, to have been dead quite awhile…..There was also a large pistol lying at the right hand side of the body.” — statement of David Cone.

Mr. Cone stated that he saw blood on the steps and noticed rust on the pistol.  While going to fetch help, he ran into the gardener. Curious about the discovery, the gardener went back with the Cone to view the body, then they both separated, going different directions around the hotel in order to notify the hotel management of the discovery.

The gardener, F.W. Koeppen's sworn testimony stated the same information, that the woman's body was found "laying along the steps in a sitting position, and after being dead, dropped over on the stairway." He also stated that he "noticed the pistol lying on one side." 

After instructing the gardener to cover her body with tarpaulin so that other guests would not see her,  Mr. Gomer, the hotel clerk, called upon the Deputy Coroner and the undertakers at Johnson's & Company to further address the situation. 

When Deputy Coroner H.J. Stetson arrived, he immediately looked over the corpse. He ascertained that she had been dead for about six or seven hours given the condition of rigor mortis present. It was the coroner who removed the pistol from the ground and collected it as evidence for further inquiry. As the undertakers came and removed the woman's body from the hotel, they placed her in a receiving box to take back to San Diego at Johnson's & Company mortuary.

The Coroner then went to investigate in room 302, where she had been staying for the past several days. Upon entering her room, he realized that the bed had not been slept in.

"I found that valise, and on the table I found this envelope she had addressed... Denman Thompson, the Old Homestead. And "Frank" is written here four times, and "Lottie Anderson Bernard," and "Mrs. Lottie Bernard," "Lottie Anderson Bernard, Detroit," and then on this paper I found "I merely heard of that man, I do not know him." Here is an invitation — here is an invitation to the Hotel del Coronado, signed by Louise Leslie Carter and Lillian Russell." He went on to say, "She had a purse on her person, that contained $16.50, and there was a little ring in the purse, a plain ring, and the key to her valise.”

Among the other things mentioned were some handkerchiefs that were stitched with what appeared to read "Little Anderson,"** along with her night dress hanging in the closet and a hat on the mantle.

  **Small stitching of the name Lottie on a handkerchief

  could have easily looked like the work “Little.”

Items also found in her room included a bottle of brandy, a penknife, a bottle of camphor, some quinine pills and a wrapped up paper with the writings that said "If this doesn't relieve you, you better send for the doctor," which was signed Druggist.

The Coroner went on to add, “In the grate in the room it looked as though quite a package of papers had been burned, it was all in ashes, you might say. Whether she had made them for a fire or what they might have been you could not tell, but they had all been burned.”

According to statements from staff at the hotel, Lottie A. Bernard arrived in the afternoon at the Hotel Del Coronado on Thursday, November 24th, 1892. The clerk on duty at the time actually registered Lottie, writing her name into the register. She did not sign in herself. After being shown to her room, the woman told the bellboy, Harry West, that she had been ill. He claimed she stated that she suffered from neuralgia, that she was very sick and also mentioned that she was waiting for her brother to arrive.

The next day, Lottie came down to the front desk to inquire as to whether or not her brother, Dr. Anderson had arrived. She did this everyday while she stayed at the hotel. She also asked Mr. Gomer for advice on how to obtain her luggage from the train depot, intimating that her luggage had been left at the D Street Depot in National City, because her brother was the one who had the appropriate checks to have them released.

Lottie claimed that she had lost contact with her brother when he departed from her at the Orange station, going either to Los Angeles or to San Francisco and she did not know what to do.  She also divulged that her brother was a doctor, and that he was supposed to meet her there in San Diego.

According to reports, Friday the 25th seemed to come and go without much notation.  However, when Saturday came along, there was a lot more to recall about Lottie.  A gentleman named T.J. Fisher, who lived at the Hotel Del Coronado and worked in the hotel drug store, stated that he first met Lottie Bernard when she came down to the drug store on Saturday, requesting something to relieve her suffering. He referred her to Mr. Fosdick, who was the manager of the store, who then told her she should see a physician.

Perhaps this is where Lottie acquired the small folded paper that the coroner found in her room which more than likely contained some sort of medicinal remedy to relieve her pain.  It was more than likely given to her by Mr. Fosdick, or even perhaps Mr. Fisher without Mr. Fosdick's knowledge, and that could be why the paper found in her room read, "If this doesn't relieve you, you better send for the doctor,"  signed “Druggist.”  Later on, Lottie called for Harry West, the bellboy, to go down to the drug store and get her an empty pint bottle and a sponge.

One theory about why Lottie requested an empty bottle and sponge was for the purpose to induce an abortion with the addition of using quinine.  What is interesting to note though is the fact that quinine is an “ineffective abortifacient, even when taken in toxic doses.” -  US National Library of Medicine

Although you can die from overusing quinine, it  seems that the “abortion”  theory several other writers have tried to insinuate doesn’t quite hold up.  Could she have attempted to use it for an abortion, based on the belief it would work? Yes, but we have no proof that she was actually pregnant except for gossip in the newspapers. The more likely reason that Lottie had the pills could have been for the purpose of relieving her pain, since quinine’s medicinal properties are used for analgesic purposes.

As far as a pharmaceutical pessary, medical science shows that if used properly they can effectively deliver pharmaceutical substances easily as the body absorbs the medicine through the skin of the vagina or rectum. Perhaps she had used that method before as a treatment for pain relief.  She had told the housekeeper and the bell boy that she was ill, not only with neuralgia, but also stomach cancer. She explained that her case was so bad that the doctor's had lost all hope for her. Was she telling the truth? Unfortunately, we will never really know because there was no thorough autopsy done on her body, leaving too many uncertainties that can never be answered.

According to the coroner's inquest, Harry West stated that by early Monday, Lottie had called for him to run a bath for her and bring her a pitcher of ice water. She remained in the bath for one to two hours.  Around noon she rang him back explaining that while she was in the bathroom, leaning on the tub, she slipped into it and wet her hair. She asked him to help her dry her hair as she was so weak and couldn't do it herself. She also requested a whiskey cocktail. While downstairs, West spoke to the hotel clerk Gomer about her condition prompting Mr. Gomer to go up to Lottie’s room himself and insist that she see a doctor. When Gomer arrived and found her lying in bed in agony, he suggested calling a doctor to check on her but she was completely opposed to the idea.  

"It was a very gloomy, dreary sort of day, and she was on the east side of the house without any fire, and I suggested that she have a fire, and be made comfortable. She said no, she was very comfortable, as good as she could expect.  She further told me that the doctors had given her up, that she had cancer of the stomach, and that her case was hopeless, but she told us in such an off-hand way that it did not appear suspicious to me, and I endeavored to find out something about her identity.

In Gomer’s testimony during the inquest, he also admitted that while in Lottie’s room, he noticed letters on the table. “On the table in her room were some letters.  I could not find out the contents of them without picking them up, and of course that was out of order. The only thing I saw on the table were some envelopes, addressed to herself and finally, after I found she was so much opposed to having  a physician, I just put the question to her, if she had got her baggage over, and then I asked her if she was supplied with funds, and she said yes.“—A.S. Gomer

It was then that Gomer asked Lottie about contacting her brother to appropriate more funds for her stay at the hotel.  Lottie informed him to contact G.L. Allen in Hamburg, Iowa, by telegram to request funds. He claimed that he left her room at about half past twelve and sent the telegram around one o'clock in the afternoon on Monday, November 28, 1892. That was the last time he saw her alive.

What I found quite interesting was the fact that Lottie continued to inquire at the front desk regarding whether her brother, Mr. Anderson had arrived. She seemed desperate, and didn’t try to hide the fact that they had separated at the station in Orange.  Mr. Gomer stated, “That is the way her story begun, Orange, she said Orange; her brother was obliged to leave her, to remain there, or go to Frisco, she didn’t know which, and that she came on alone from Orange, and that her brother would be along that afternoon. This was the day after her arrival, and everyday she inquired if her brother had arrived. She claimed that her brother was Doctor Anderson, and that the initials were M.C., I’m not sure about that.”— A.S. Gomer "
--- from the book "Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered" by J'aime Rubio (ISBN-13:  978-1523981175)

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE WITH "PART 2 of "WHO WAS THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGER?" 

(Copyright - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com

published blog in 2013, published book in 2016)