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HOTEL DEL CORONADO
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THE HISTORY THE PHOTOS THE INVESTIGATION TEAM MEMBER SUMMARY

The year is 1885. We find ourselves in San Diego, California. A wild, rough city back in those days. Murders, suicides, and death seem to be the mainstream of the city. A battle had already taken place when some of the city leaders decided to move the main portion of the city from Old Town to New Town San Diego. Water supplies are not plentiful. Trains are not in yet, connecting the more northern city of Los Angeles with the far southern city of San Diego. But amidst it all one man has a dream that he is seeing become a reality. The man is E. B. Babcock. His dream is to build the most luxurious hotel in the west. Mr. Babcock sets out to fulfill his dream by purchasing, for $110,000, the island of Coronado and North Island. He intends to build there. To raise money to help pay for the building he will end up selling parcels of land to private citizens on the islands.

The cost to build this 399 room hotel is over one million dollars. He has no real labor force, as a result, he draws upon the immigrants from China who will work for practically nothing. He begins his task. By 1891 the hotel is not only open, as a show place of the west, but visited for the first time by a U.S. president, Benjamin Harrison. Hotel del Coronado is now a part of the entire country's history, not merely California's.

Proudly it sits upon the coast of the clear, beautiful bay of San Diego. A bridge now joining the city to her. A wonderful place for recreation and relaxation. The Hotel is grand, not merely in structure but also in the manner of treatment of its guests. It is known for this. It was also known for being removed from the woes of the city of San Diego. For back in the 1890s there were many woes. Murders, suicides, gambling houses, drunken brawls, and more plagued the city. Hotel del Coronado promised a peaceful time, removed from these afflictions of the city. So when a young woman, aged 24, by the name of Kate Morgan aka Lottie A. Bernard was found dead on the steps leading to the beach, it was ruled suicide immediately. Yet does a suicide victim haunt? If so, why would she? Well we will be traveling down south to the pearl of pacific hotels to visit and try to discover why she haunts and who is actually haunting.

Rumors, soon after Kate Morgan's death, flew about the hotel among its staff that the room she had stayed in was haunted. The year is 1892 and no one is willing to come forth and testify to what they experienced.

Babcock, though he denied any belief in ghosts, would not rent out the room unless the entire hotel was filled. If the room was not haunted, why then did he take this action. Even after Ms. Morgan had died, the room was not rented out for one month. Of course no records indicate as to why.

The story: Kate Morgan traveled with her husband Thomas under the name of Lottie A. Bernard. Thomas used the name Dr. M.C. Anderson. Their design was one of deception. Kate would play Thomas's sister, getting young men interested in her. When they wished to court her she would tell them they had to have her brother's approval, Dr. M.C. Anderson. In order to secure his approval they would soon discover they had to play poker with him, since that was his main past time. Once the young suitor was fleeced good and proper, Lottie (Kate) would drop him and move on to the next young suitor. Thus Kate and husband Thomas managed to make a decent enough living from this scam. They used alias' because of their family names, both coming from wealthy families who did not wish to be marked by their con game.

Kate Morgan was a 'natural beauty,' according to the coroner's report and remained beautiful in death as in life. A small, petite woman of 24 years who soon found herself wanting more than roaming the train ways and stage-coach paths to earn money. She told Thomas she wanted a house and a family to go with it. Thomas was not amenable to such a suggestion but finally gave into her desires and bought a house in Los Angeles. He then would go out on the road, looking for high stake poker games, to earn a living.

When he found no money in this, Kate would work as a housekeeper in Los Angeles, under another alias, to earn the money necessary for them to live. Thomas started traveling more and more and finally Kate joined him back on circuit. But when she discovered she was pregnant she remained behind. Thomas made a tour of the west, from Iowa back to Los Angeles, picking up his wife in route on his way to San Diego. It on the train ride from L.A. to S.D. that he learned of her pregnancy. They quarreled, he left the train in Orange, CA and Kate went on to stay at the Hotel del Coronado.

While she was there, she must have taken a huge amount of quinine, used to abort a child back in those days, for she suffered all the symptoms of quinine poisoning. The large bottle of quinine was found in her room after her death.

Reports state that she went into San Diego, across the bay by the Coronado Ferry, purchased a .44 caliber pistol and some shells. She also went to at least one hotel to inquire about the registration of Dr. M.C. Anderson. The next morning she was found dead on the steps leading to the beach just off the veranda of the Hotel del Coronado. A small bullet wound to her right temple, no exit wound, blood on her hand and the gun, which lay two steps above her hand. Did she kill herself? Is she the one who haunts? If so, why does she do so?

THE PHOTOS:

THE INVESTIGATION

Snap! Then the grind of the motor pushes the single picture out of the Polaroid camera. Snap! again, and again the motor pushes another picture out of the camera. And then we wait. Hoping above all that these pictures will develop right before our very eyes to reveal something, anything, to confirm the stories told of this room. The room, 3312, at the Hotel del Coronado.

We made a trip down south to investigate the "haunted" room of the Hotel del Coronado. We were greeted with a smile by the gentlemen of the valet parking as well as the reservation clerk who checked us into our room. We were treated with the utmost courtesy. The front lobby reeks with the history of this grand hotel. The wood is, without mistake, of the finest quality and the original material placed in the hotel when it was built back in 1889 to 1891. The old elevator reminds one of the Gay 90s period. The building creeks and lists slightly, from the wear and tear over the years, but still commands a stately presence on Coronado island. Its high, catwalk like dome, reaches out towards the night sky, lit by the lights that cascade down its roof. Standing clearly as a beacon to all those within several miles of the island. The hotel is magnificent, perhaps not as much as it was back in the 1890s but almost equally as much.

We make a call to the reservations office, asking to speak with Susan. Susan is the only the reason we are here and were guaranteed this room. This room, the most requested room of the hotel, is kept rather busy by guests seeking a paranormal experience. Susan is invited to the room. We are delighted to meet with her. She is friendly, open, quite charming and extremely helpful.

Susan tells us of her experience in this haunted room. It seems, one other time when she was helpful to others checking into this room, she was invited to come and meet the people. When she arrived they chatted briefly about different things, including the ghost in the room. Suddenly the lady Susan was visiting realized her large emerald ring was missing. Susan remembered seeing the ring on the lady's finger when she shook hands with her. The lady, gentleman, and Susan spent several minutes searching the room for the ring; it was not to be found. Susan called security for assistance. They also joined in on the search, still the ring was not to be found. Security filed a report, then left. Susan felt horrible. She was convinced the guests would think she had taken the ring somehow. The lady excused herself and went into the bathroom, coming back out within a couple of seconds. There in her hand was the ring. She had found it on the sink. She had not been in the bathroom since Susan arrived and since Susan had seen the ring on her finger, the only explanation was Kate, the ghost of room 3312, had borrowed the ring for a short time.

Susan, greatly relieved, left, telling the guests to please call her if they needed anything. She told them to just dial 5. She left the room and returned to the reservations office. Shortly after getting back to her office, she remembered the number for reservations had just been changed and 5 was no longer for reservations but for the front desk. Before she had the chance to call the guests to tell them of the new number the phone rang. It was the guests. Susan asked how they reached her, the woman said, why we dialed 5 just as you said to.

This is just one story. There are so many, many more.

One of our visitors wrote and asked if we ever viewed the videotapes from our investigation at the Hotel Del Coronado. We did in fact view the tapes, but with all the things happening in our lives no one on the team took the time to write an updated report.

We placed three different video cameras in the room. We also placed three different tape recorders in the room. In the late afternoon of our first day we turned all the equipment on, verified it was working properly then left the room to go to dinner. The videotape showed us leaving the room. THE MOMENT the door closed, the videotapes all went fuzzy then to snow. The recording equipment picked up our conversation as we were preparing to leave but once the door was closed the tape was filled by an inconsistent thumping noise that was recorded and a static-y sound. The thumping sound on the tape was never identified by any of us. The truly interesting part is that when we returned all the static and snow stopped and things went back to normal.

We continued to run the video cameras throughout our entire stay but nothing truly unusual could be seen. There were some minor orbs of light but nothing highly unusual.

Our best photographic material came from two different Polaroid cameras, a Nikon camera and a Canon AE1, which had infrared film loaded in it. Many of these photos are on our site already.

Which brings me to the point of suggestion for those who wish to investigate haunted places. Our experience has been that Polaroid cameras seem to produce the best results. The Nikon camera used was fully automatic, this type of camera has some major drawbacks in that in the darkness the flash will always flash and this can cause an unrealistic result. The Canon AE1 is a manual camera and as a result infrared film can be used in it without problems. Allowing us to take photos in nearly total darkness and yet still producing results. We have, since this investigation, added to our collection of cameras, a Sony Digital, a Minolta fully automatic 35mm, plus an Olympus Digital 720. However we still find the Polaroid to yield the best results. The only requirements for the Polaroid is to make certain it has been cleaned by a professional to insure all parts are operating properly and to have several film packs to use during the investigation.

ONE TEAM MEMBER'S OPINION & SUMMARY:

I need to start off by telling you that I personally do NOT believe for 1 split-second that Kate Morgan committed suicide - based on the research we did - it would have been almost if not completely impossible. The unfortunate thing was that because of it's ties/attachment to wealth and political persons, the hotel could simply not afford to be linked with a murder and I believe some possibly well-intentioned people opted to cover it up as a suicide.

In the room itself I got some VERY interesting photos but must admit that psychic-wise I really did not feel any kind of overwhelming presence...Had we not had the camera, video and audio experiences we did, I might not have even believed the room was haunted. I am usually very "sensitive" so this was kind of surprising for me...

Besides staying at the Coronado, we spent a LOT of time researching things, at the college in San Diego where old hotel registers were kept, at gun dealers and numerous other places. Unfortunately many records from that time frame were destroyed in the big fire that occurred in San Diego around that time frame.

Let me tell you why I don't believe it was a suicide; here are the facts as we discovered them:

Kate Morgan stood under 5 feet tall and weighed 90 some-odd pounds.
At the time of her death she was sick with quinine poisoning (as records attest to) from trying to abort her unborn child.
Reportedly when she went to purchase the gun she was too weak to even get on and off the ferry or cable car without being lifted.
The night of her death was the first big storm of the season - winds were very strong and the side of the Coronado where her body was found lies right on the beachfront.
We went to a gun dealer to determine facts about the American Bulldog gun. While he did not have any of those (naturally) he gave us a gun to handle that was approximately the same size and weight (actually a little smaller...) Now, I am not a small person and it was heavy to me - and I would have had a hard time firing it.
The gun was actually found 2 steps ABOVE Kate Morgan's lifeless body.
There was no exit wound from a point-blank shot to the head and there was absolutely no gun powder on her hands or around the entrance wound. (mind you, the "bullets" were actually round pellets almost but there still should have been residue somewhere...)
Kate was completely dressed in eveningwear and a sealskin coat, and she carried her handbag. But her clothing (even her coat) was not soaking wet in spite of the torrential rain that night.
After her death, the hotel decided to "remodel" her room and shut it off from access for a month. This room was one of the most - if not THE most popular room they reserved regularly...

THE QUESTIONS ARISE:

HOW could a woman of her size, being so weak she could not step down from or up to a cable car without someone lifting her, in the high winds of the first storm, standing on the beachside of the hotel, have held that heavy gun to her own head and fired it?
AND...even if she had, at close range like that why was there no exit-wound?
AND...why was her clothing not wet from the storm?
AND...why would she dress fully in eveningwear and take her handbag down with her to shoot herself in the middle of the night?
AND...why was the gun found 2 steps ABOVE her? Had she shot herself the falling with her arm pointed downwards should have thrown the heavy gun down -- if you believe in gravity anyway.
Finally...why was the room she stayed in effectively shut down for 30 days after her death for "remodeling"? Why that room? What at that time?

There are far too many unanswered questions - too many pieces that do not add up... I believe Kate was actually murdered - in her room and carried outside through the underground catacombs to avoid a scandal. In fact, we did a re-enactment of how it could have been done - sneaking through the catacombs late that night and it would have been VERY easy for a body to have been moved without others noticing.

Who killed her? Obviously I cannot say for sure. My own personal belief is that it was her husband. I think she bought the gun to threaten him, found him at another hotel (probably with another young woman) and made a scene. I suspect he told her he would come to the Coronado and they would work things out. When he got there, he killed her with the gun she bought. Then he, or someone attempting to cover up the murder, simply dragged her body to the steps to make it appear like a suicide. In that day and age it would not have been questioned the way it would be today. But looking at the facts made ME sure it was not a suicide.