WEBVTT - S05 Episode 13: A Room with No View 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.680 On the evening of March tenth, nineteen twenty nine, on 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.840 New York City's East one hundred and thirty second Street, 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:21.640 something strange was brewing. It had just gone ten thirty 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.240 pm when Missus Smith was alerted to a short burst 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.560 of screams coming from the laundrette next to her home. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.000 The laundrette, located at number four East one hundred and 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.520 thirty second Street, belonged to thirty year old Isadore Fink, 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:41.800 who also lived at the property. Smith summoned nearby police 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:46.240 officer patrolman Captain Bone, who proceeded to investigate the situation. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.720 Unable to see anything through the windows, cat and Bone 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.840 attempted to access the building, only to find the front 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:58.120 door and all the windows locked from the inside. There was, however, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.760 a small transom window just above the door that appeared 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.480 to be open, but it was far too small for 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.759 the officer or Missus Smith to fit through. With Smith's help, Cat' 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.440 and Bone asked a local child to climb inside the 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.600 property and unlock the door for them. After squeezing through 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.840 the window, the boy appeared moments later at the front door, 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.160 having opened its heavy bolt lock from inside, turning on 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.640 the lights. The officer quickly found Fink lying on the 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.920 floor in a pool of blood, having died from three 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:35.720 gunshot wounds. Robbery was quickly ruled out as a motive. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.199 Since no money or anything of any value was found 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.440 to have been taken, and since the transom window was 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.880 far too small for an adult to climb through, police 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:51.840 concluded that Fink had shot himself, only no gun was 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:56.280 ever found at the scene. The case, which was never 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:02.080 satisfactorily resolved, was described by then police Edward mulrooney as 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:07.080 an insoluble mystery. The death of Isadore Fink has since 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.080 become known as one of the most compelling real life 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:14.480 examples of the fabled locked room mystery, a subgenre of 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.639 crime fiction in which usually someone is murdered despite it 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.240 appearing impossible for a perpetrator to have committed the crime 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:27.520 without detection. The locked room mystery in literature is widely 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.359 thought to have originated with Edgar Allan Poe's Disturbing the 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.359 Murder in Room Morgue, published in eighteen forty eight. With 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:40.079 Soji Shimada's dark and puzzling Tokyo Zodiac Murders, considered to 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.320 be one of the finest examples of the hugely popular genre, 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.200 though Isadore Fink's murder is one of the better known 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:51.240 real world examples. Only six years later, in a hotel 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:56.239 in Kansas City, Missouri, another infamous locked room mystery would 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:02.840 unfold as compelling and strange as fiction you're listening to 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:15.200 unexplained and I'm Richard McClean smith. The President Hotel at 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.520 thirteen twenty nine Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City is one 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:23.160 of those grand old downtown hotels that speak of a 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.639 bygone age of glitz and glamor. Built in nineteen twenty 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:32.320 five in a bold Jacobean revival style, complete with ornate 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.840 terra cotta moldings and its name in lights high up 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.320 on the rooftop, it soon established itself as one of 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.800 the more aspirational venues of its day. In nineteen twenty eight, 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.880 the fifteen floor hotel was selected for that year's Republican 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:52.040 Party convention, and its famously plush drum room lounge would 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.000 go on to host Frank Sinatra and King of Swing 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.840 Benny Goodman, among many other prestigious performers, and it was 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.560 there just after one twenty pm on Wednesday, January second 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:09.720 nineteen thirty five, when Randolph Propsed, one of the hotel's bellhops, 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.160 was called over to reception to escort a new guest 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:18.000 to his room. The man, neatly dressed in a black overcoat, 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.760 had checked in under the name Roland t Owen and 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.239 claimed to have recently arrived from Los Angeles. As Probst 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.880 was quick to note, despite booking the room for a 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.480 number of days, the man carried no luggage with him. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.000 But perhaps even stranger was how particular he'd been about 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.920 his choice of room, insisting that it be at least 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:44.400 several floors up and hidden from the street. The desk 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.880 clerk decided that room number ten forty six would be 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.960 the perfect solution, being as it was an interior room 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.599 located at the back of the hotel, overlooking and inner court. 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.680 Probst took the key and motioned for mister Owen to 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:04.200 him into the lift. Riding the car up together in silence, 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:08.359 Probst couldn't help but notice the peculiar scar just above 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.559 the man's left ear. It was some kind of burn 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:15.040 that had left a bald patch of skin loosely covered 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:19.880 by an otherwise thick head of dark brown hair. As 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.960 a bell hop, it was almost impossible not to wander 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.240 about the secret lives of the many guests that came 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.160 and went through the hotel doors, and for Probst, mister 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.120 Owen was already proving to be fertile ground for the imagination. 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.719 This was only exacerbated moments later, when having let mister 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.159 Owen into his room, the man asked Probs to wait 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.440 by the door as he removed a hair brush, comb, 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.240 and tube of toothpaste from his coat pocket and placed 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.599 each item carefully on the small shelf above the sink. Then, 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.599 turning to Probst, he announced he would be heading out 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.960 for the afternoon. The pair then rode the elevator back 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.039 to the first floor, with Owen handing him a small 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:13.960 tip before heading on out of the hotel. It had 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.960 just gone seven am on Friday, January fourth, two days 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.839 after Owen had checked in that Probst received an instruction 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.880 from the hotel's telephone operator to make a quick check 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.479 on his room, as the phone appeared to be left 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.839 off the hook. Arriving at room ten forty six moments later, 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.880 Probst founder do not disturb sign hanging from the door handle. 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:40.080 After knocking on the door. A muffled voice from inside 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.440 instructed him to come in, but when he tried to 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:49.400 handle the door wouldn't budge, having been locked from the inside. Sorry, sir, 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:53.279 I think the door is locked, he said, After hearing 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.280 someone inside saying turn on the lights. Probst knocked again, 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.120 but there was no further response. After knocking a few 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.640 more times, the bellhop eventually gave up and yelled for 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:06.880 mister Owen to put the phone back on the hook 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:12.640 before heading back downstairs. An hour later, with the phone 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.520 still off the hook, it fell, this time to twenty 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.080 five year old bellhop Harold Pike to make another check 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:23.240 on the room. Pike found the door was once again locked, 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.680 only this time it had been locked from the outside, 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:31.200 suggesting the occupant had now left the room. After knocking 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.640 and receiving no reply, Pike used his pass key to 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.920 open the door and was immediately hit by a waft 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:42.360 of warm, stale air. With the shades completely shut, it 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.040 was hard at first to see anything when a Pike 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.200 was suddenly startled by the shape of some one lying 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:52.520 on the bed. Sir, he called out as he stepped 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.480 in a little further, pulling back suddenly in embarrassment at 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.840 the sight of a naked mister Owen lying sprawled out 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.560 and fast asleep on top of the bed sheets. Sir 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:08.720 Pike said again, but Owen would not be roused. Noticing 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.080 then that the phone had been knocked off its stand 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.240 in the corner of the room, Pike simply placed it 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:18.040 back on its holder and left, locking the door behind him. 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.040 Two hours later, the phone was once again off the hook. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.480 With Randolph Probst back on duty, he swiftly made his 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.840 way to Room ten forty six to investigate again. Having 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.240 got no reply. After knocking on the door, Probst promptly 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.440 opened it and were shocked to find a naked Owen 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.400 a few feet inside the door, down on the floor 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.760 on his knees and elbows and holding his head in 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:50.000 his hands. Probst switched on the light and recoiled in horror. 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:55.520 The walls, ceiling, bathroom and bedsheets were covered in blood, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:03.800 and so too was the man's head. Here's something you 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.040 don't know about me. I often have trouble sleeping. Though 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.080 I might get to sleep easily enough, within a few hours, 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.960 I could be wide awake as my mind races through 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.719 everything I didn't do everything I still need to do, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.560 or even just to some embarrassing thing I said years 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:24.079 ago that no one else even remembers relatable. Yeah, it sucks. Fortunately, 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.880 I was introduced to Sunday Scaries, who make products specifically 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.559 for overthinkers and night hours like me, CBD gummies to 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.280 help you decompress, clear your head, and fall asleep so 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.160 you can actually wake up a fully functioning human being. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:40.880 I thought I was alone in dealing with everyday's stress 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.160 related issues, but Sunday Scaries reminded me that I'm not. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.520 Whether it's a racing mind, lying awake at night, or 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.840 feeling on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Sunday Scaries 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.240 is the perfect tonic, and I got you twenty five 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.439 percent off to prove it. Visit Sunday Scaries dot com 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.280 and use my promo code unexplained for your discount. That's 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.840 promo code unexplained for twenty five percent off at Sunday 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.920 Scaris dot com. Please note, Sunday Scary should not be 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.000 used of your pregnant or nursing Consult with a physician 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.880 before use. If you have a serious medical condition, or 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:20.720 use prescription medications after running to get help. Probst returned 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.000 with the hotel manager, only to find Owen had by 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.959 then collapsed with his body blocking the door from the 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.480 other side. With police arriving on the scene soon after, 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:36.160 Detectives Irah Johnson and William Edridge, along with Detective Sergeant 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.480 Frank Howland and doctor Harold Flanders, succeeded and barging their 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.839 way into the room, they found Owen breathing rascally and 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.120 lying face down in a small pool of blood, similar 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.400 to how Probst had first found him. What Probst hadn't seen, however, 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.160 was that Owen's neck, hands and feet had been tied 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.880 together with cord, having assumed the blood had come from 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.600 the man's head wound. After cutting him free, doctor Flanders 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.079 was surprised to find a series of what appeared to 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.560 be deep knife wounds on his chest, one of which 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:15.160 Flanders's guest had punctured his lung, which explained his raspy breathing. 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:19.200 There was bruising on his neck too, from where someone 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:24.080 had tried to strangle him. Then, suddenly, as if roused 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:28.800 from a deep sleep, Owen began to stir, rising to 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.800 his feet as the doctor helped him up. He stumbled 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.480 into the bathroom, clearly on shore of where he was exactly. 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.640 The detectives followed him inside and demanded to know what 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:44.280 had happened. Who did this to you, they asked, Nobody, 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.719 said Owen droggily. Then how did you get hurt? A 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.280 fell against the bathtub, replied the man. The detectives looked 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.120 to each other in confusion. After asking if Owen had 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.319 somehow done it all to himself, the man reply i'd know, 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:06.360 before toppling over and falling unconscious once more. Mister Owen 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.679 was rushed to hospital by ambulance, only to fall into 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.360 a coma later that night, from which he would never recover, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:25.480 dying shortly after midnight later that evening. Oddly, despite Owen 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.000 being completely naked, no shoes or clothes were found in 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.400 his room, not even the ones he'd arrived in. The 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.680 room had been almost completely stripped, with all the usual 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:40.280 hotel supplies found to have been taken, including the room's towels. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.359 In the end, detectives found only a single unlit cigarette, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.679 as well as a hairpin and an unopened bottle of 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:54.439 diluted sulfuric acid, perhaps used to treat mouth ulcers. Detectives 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:58.040 also found to drinking glasses, with one left unused on 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.040 the shelf above the sink, while the other was found 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.679 in the sink with a large chunk of glass missing 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:08.079 from it. Four small fingerprints were also found on top 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.800 of the telephone stand that did not belong to Owen 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.040 or any of the hotel staff, leading detectives to conclude 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:20.360 that despite Owen's protestations, he'd almost certainly been murdered, or 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.800 at the very least had not acted alone. After placing 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.720 a call to the Los Angeles Police Department to find 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.120 the man's home address, the police turned their attention to 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.120 anyone who'd come into contact with him over the last 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:39.760 few days. Having left the hotel shortly after arriving on Wednesday, January, 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:44.120 the second hotel cleaner, Mary Soptic, found him back in 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.160 his room when she went to clean it in the 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:50.800 early afternoon. Mary cleaned the room as Owen sat on 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.440 the bed under the dim light of a single lamp 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.880 with the shades pulled tightly shut over the window. Mary 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.079 was nervous at first to be in the room with 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.240 him alone, but something about the man gave her reason 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.800 to feel safe. Despite having the physique of a boxer 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.440 or wrestler. Perhaps as he sat there alone in the dark, 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.959 he looked, she thought, like a small wounded animal, and 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.720 from the troubled look on his face, it was clear 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:22.560 he was deeply preoccupied with something. As Mary continued to clean, 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.800 Owen eventually stood up from the bed, pulled on his jacket, 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.760 and left the room, telling Mary on his way out 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.600 to leave the door unknocked when she left because he 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:37.680 was expecting company. After finishing up, Mary did as she 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:47.560 was instructed. When Mary returned to the room four hours 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:52.040 later to deliver clean towels, she found Owen once again inside, 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.520 this time lying down on his bed. As she quietly 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.280 put the towels away, she caught sight of a note 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.960 on the desk which read, don I will be back 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:08.680 in fifteen minutes. Wait. The next morning, around ten thirty 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.000 a m. Mary returned again to the room to clean it. 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.480 Finding it locked from the outside and getting no response 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.680 when she knocked, Mary thought it safe to assume that 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.800 the room was empty, so it was with some surprise 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.160 when she opened the door to find Owen inside, once 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:31.360 again sitting quietly in the dark. Owen motioned for her 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.760 to continue with her duties. When the phone rang suddenly, 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:40.160 Owen hastily picked it up. Mary heard a muffled voice 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.280 from the other end. Then Owen replied, no, don I 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.960 don't want to eat. I'm not hungry. I just had breakfast. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.000 Owen hung up the phone, then asked Mary if she 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.280 looked after the entire floor. Yes, she replied, a little 0:15:56.360 --> 0:16:00.240 taken aback by the question. Owen also wanted to know 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.280 if there were any permanent residence living at the hotel, 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.680 then moaned a little about the prices at the nearby 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:11.960 Muleback Hotel, where he'd stayed a few nights before. When 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.760 Mary returned at four that afternoon with clean towels for 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:20.360 the room, she heard two men talking inside. This time, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.360 when she knocked, she was met with a curt who 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:28.760 was it laundry? She'd replied, we don't want any came 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:39.080 the rough reply. Other hotel guests were spoken to, including 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.200 Jean Owen, no relation to the dead man, who was 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.280 staying in room ten forty eight the night before the incident. 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.960 Though she hadn't seen anyone coming in or out of 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.320 room ten forty six that night, she remembered hearing the 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.200 voices of what she assumed to be men and women 0:16:55.480 --> 0:17:00.320 squabbling loudly with each other. Later that night, around one 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:05.399 thirty am, elevator operator Charles Blocker took a woman up 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.560 to the tenth floor. Blocker identified the woman, who was 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.159 about five foot six with black hair and was dressed 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.240 in a coat of black Hudson Seal as a possible 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.520 sex worker who was a regular visitor to the hotel. 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.800 After arriving at the tenth floor, the woman asked for 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.960 directions to room ten twenty six, then headed off down 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:32.720 the corridor to find it. After returning to the ground floor, 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.800 Blocker returned to the tenth floor minutes later to find 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.240 the same woman waiting for him, having seemingly been stood 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.480 up by whoever called her to the hotel. Wandering aloud 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.440 if she'd perhaps got the room number wrong. The woman 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:52.080 stayed for another thirty minutes before leaving the hotel. An 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.600 hour later, the woman returned, this time in the company 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.480 of a man in a brown hat and overcoat. Blocker 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:02.360 took the couple to the ninth floor. Than just over 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.280 an hour later, the woman left the hotel once again, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:10.119 followed fifteen minutes later by the man who muttered something 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.040 to the reception staff about not being able to sleep 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.320 and that he was going out for a walk with 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.760 mister Rowen having died in the early hours of Saturday morning. 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.879 By the afternoon, detectives had made some headway in piecing 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.600 together the events leading up to his death, but then 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.520 came an unexpected call from the Los Angeles Police Department. 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.080 They'd made inquiries into the man's address, only to find 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.719 there wasn't one, simply because Roland t Owen didn't exist. 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:49.840 The name had been made up. If you love Unexplained 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.440 and you're looking for another podcast to binge, let me 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.639 tell you about Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Egan. Do 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.000 you believe in ghosts? How about Bigfoot? Do you think 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.440 it's strange and fast snating that a four year old 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.040 in Oklahoma could look at a black and white picture 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.000 of a man from the nineteen thirties and say that 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:11.720 was me before and then provide actual, verifiable details of 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:16.040 the man's life. If so, Strange and Unexplained with Daisy 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.879 Egan is about to be your new favorite podcast. Daisy 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.480 is a Tony Award winning actor, writer, and true crime fanatic, 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.800 but she's also a skeptic. Each week. She looks at 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:31.680 real stories of hauntings, disappearances, UFO encounters, the Bermuda Triangle, 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.680 near death experiences, and anything else that feels just beyond 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.600 what we can easily make sense of. She is your 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.320 guide into the inexplicable details of these stories, but she's 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.480 also like, show me the receipts. So if you want 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.800 to dive further into the unexplained, check out Strange and 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.840 Unexplained with Daisy Egan. Find Strange and Unexplained with Daisy 0:19:52.920 --> 0:20:01.760 Egan wherever you get your podcasts. On Saturday evening, front 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.120 page articles in the Kansas City Star and the Kansas 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.440 City Journal Post encouraged anyone to get in touch with 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.560 police who might be able to identify the man. Members 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:15.480 of the public were also encouraged to go down to 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.120 Melody mc gilly funeral Home on Linwood and Maine, where 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.960 the man's body was being kept, to identify it for themselves. 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:28.160 One man, Robert Lane, who visited the body the following day, 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:32.240 recognized the man as the same individual he'd given a 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.960 lift to on Thursday night, the night before the man died. 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.920 Lane had first seen him in some distress running down 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.560 Thirteenth Street, a few minutes walk from the President Hotel, 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.240 bleeding on his arm and wearing only an undershirt on 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.640 his top half despite the freezing cold weather. When Lane 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.320 pulled over to see if the man was okay, he 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.320 asked if Lane could take him to the nearest taxi rank. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.320 After a gree to help, Lane heard the man saying 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.000 I'll kill that son of a bitch tomorrow as he 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.280 jumped into the back of his car. He dropped him 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.040 off at the next junction, where the man promptly found 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:15.280 a cab and drove off into the night. As many 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.520 as fifty to three hundred people are said to view 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.040 the body, with many more calling in to inquire if 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.600 it was a missing loved one or family member, sometimes 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:29.639 sending pictures to back up their requests. However, none were 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:34.800 able to successfully identify the deceased. Efforts to locate the 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.920 mysterious don were also made, with some wandering if the 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.040 woman in the Hudson sealed coat and her companion in 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.200 the brown hat had anything to do with it, but 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.480 nothing was ever found of the pair. Inquiries were also 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.119 made at the mule Back Hotel, where the man was 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:55.960 thought to have stayed shortly before arriving at the President Hotel, 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.200 staff identified the man as the guest known to them 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.119 as Eugene case Scott, who also claimed to have arrived 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:08.560 from la although once again the LAPD could find no 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:13.800 record of such a person. After further investigations, the man 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.280 was also found to have stayed at the city's Saint 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:21.160 Regis Hotel, this time checking in under the name Duncan Ogletree, 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.439 where he shared his room with another guest named Donald 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:30.159 Kelso perhaps this man was their don thought police. However, 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:34.280 despite continued efforts to locate the man and countless more 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:39.520 failed attempts to identify the body, the case eventually went cold. 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.880 On Sunday, March third, it was announced in the Kansas 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:53.879 City Journal Post that the unidentified man would be buried 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.400 the next day in the Potter's Field or a pauper's Grave, 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.000 as it is sometimes known, an area reserved for the 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:06.520 unknown and unclaimed. Later that afternoon, however, a call was 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:10.199 received at the Melody mc gillie funeral Home. The caller, 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.440 a woman who didn't leave her name, asked only that 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:15.840 they hold off on the burial to give her time 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:19.320 to find some money to pay for it. Three weeks later, 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:23.000 an envelope stuffed with cash arrived at the funeral home 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:26.120 with a note to use the money for the unknown man. 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.720 Payments were also made to a local flower company for 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.520 the purchase of thirteen roses to be placed on the 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:39.400 man's grave, alongside a card that dread simply Love Forever, Louise. 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:44.080 A few days later, at the Memorial Park Cemetery in 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:47.639 Kansas City, as the reverend conducted the service for the 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:52.480 unidentified man, some police detectives gathered as a sign of respect, 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:56.000 but also in the hope that the mysterious Louise might 0:23:56.160 --> 0:24:07.200 make an appearance, but nobody came. In early autumn nineteen 0:24:07.280 --> 0:24:11.639 thirty six, in Birmingham, Alabama, Ruby Ogletree had spent the 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:14.680 best part of a year agonizing about the whereabouts of 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:18.760 her seventeen year old son, Artemis. Back in April of 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:22.400 nineteen thirty four, Artemis decided he wanted to see more 0:24:22.440 --> 0:24:27.240 of America and set out to hitchhike to California. Ruby 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:30.679 missed her son greatly, but gained solace from the frequent 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:33.240 letters he would write to her informing her of his 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:38.199 latest adventures. By spring the following year, however, things had 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:42.920 taken a peculiar turn. Artemis's letters, which had once been 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:47.200 free flowing, handwritten and upbeat accounts of his travels, had 0:24:47.280 --> 0:24:52.159 suddenly become typewritten and strangely curt often using slang that 0:24:52.320 --> 0:24:57.480 sounded very unlike her son. In one letter, the apparent 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:01.040 Artemis declared he was traveling to Chica to enroll in 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:05.040 business school, while another soon after said he was in 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:07.840 fact going to visit Europe and was scheduled to leave 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:11.399 on a boat from New York imminently. But by far 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.200 the strangest communication came a few months later, in August 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:19.160 of nineteen thirty five, when Ruby received a phone call 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:22.240 from a man named Jordan, who said he was calling 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:26.960 from Memphis, Tennessee. The man, who spoke with great speed 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:30.120 and energy, was bringing to let her know that Artemis 0:25:30.520 --> 0:25:33.720 was by then in Cairo in Egypt, having married and 0:25:33.840 --> 0:25:38.159 settled down with a wealthy woman he'd met there. Jordan 0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:41.280 also explained that her son had saved his life in 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:43.800 a fight, but had lost his thumb in the process 0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:47.280 and so would be unable to write to her any time. Soon. 0:25:48.440 --> 0:25:52.040 Realizing that something was up, a confused and distressed Ruby 0:25:52.400 --> 0:25:55.560 wrote to j Edgar Hoover at the FBI to look 0:25:55.600 --> 0:25:59.280 into the matter. She also wrote to the American Consulate 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:01.640 in Cairo in the hope that they might be able 0:26:01.720 --> 0:26:04.639 to help track her sundown, but nothing came of it. 0:26:12.000 --> 0:26:15.040 A year later, having heard nothing more of her son, 0:26:15.560 --> 0:26:18.200 a friend of Ruby's arrived one morning at her house 0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:23.000 carrying an old issue of the American Weekly magazine. Handing 0:26:23.040 --> 0:26:25.760 it to Ruby, she said, I think that something you 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:29.760 should see. It was an article titled the Mystery of 0:26:29.840 --> 0:26:33.840 Room Number ten forty six, the story of the unidentified 0:26:33.920 --> 0:26:37.680 man who had been found mortally wounded at the President Hotel, 0:26:38.720 --> 0:26:41.240 and right in the middle was a large photo of 0:26:41.320 --> 0:26:44.680 the man lying dead at the funeral home, with his 0:26:44.840 --> 0:26:48.280 unusual scar showing prominently on the side of his head. 0:26:49.480 --> 0:26:52.639 Ruby took the magazine from her friend and felt her 0:26:52.720 --> 0:26:57.160 legs buckle beneath her. The man, or, as it turned 0:26:57.200 --> 0:27:03.920 out more a boy, was unmistakeably her son Artemis. After 0:27:04.040 --> 0:27:08.120 the boy's identity was confirmed with Kansas City Police, further 0:27:08.240 --> 0:27:11.879