Hi friends! Happy Friday! I'm sorry that I missed last week's Freaky Friday Files but I feel like I made up for it with both a Sociology Blog and a Vlog all about Glitch in the Matrix! You can check those out below:
I'm also behind on my YouTube videos - so hopefully I'll be able to get one out next week!
In today's Freaky Friday Files, we are going to talk about the unsolved mystery of Room 1046. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about and then I saw someone talk about it on Reddit and I was like welp, there's my topic for this week! Please enjoy.
TW: this content may be disturbing (and graphic), please read at your own risk. TW topics: murder, unsolved mysteries, unexplained deaths.
Room 1046
Room 1046 is the unsolved mystery or murder of the now-identified man "Artemus Ogletree". Let's set the scene, it's the year 1935, the streets are dark and empty, eerie even, and a man called Roland T. Owen checked into the Hotel President, Kansas City, Missouri, on the 3rd of January, and by the 5th of January, he was being treated in the hospital for beating and stabbing injuries. He passed away in hospital. This man was identified as Ogletree and he had been staying in Room 1046 for the past two days, and all we know is that he was speaking to someone known as "Don" on the phone and was partaking in some unusual behaviours according to the hotel staff.
Who is Don?
Did he kill Ogletree?
Why did Ogletree need to check into his hotel under a alias?
What were the "unusual" behaviours?
What were the events leading up to his death?
Firstly, I want to say that Mr. Artemus Ogletree may rest in peace (RIP) and that his family will one day gain some answers as to what really happened to him during his stay at Room 1046.
Let's explore.
Ogletree was found in his hotel room on the morning of his death and following this, as hotel staff and authorities were unable to locate a next of kin, suspicion began that Roland T. Owen was an alias. As no one was able to be located, his body was stored in a funeral parlor for 2 months until an anonymous donor sent through funds for a funeral and floral arrangement and all that was signed was "Louise." No one knows who Louise was - as this was before his identity was confirmed.
A year and a half went by and the man's identity was finally identified when Ruby Ogletree (his mother) had seen a photo with a distinct scar on his head and said that it was her son. In 1934, Ogletree had left Birmingham to hitchhike to California at just 17. Ruby had received two letters saying that her son had gone to Egypt and even a call in 1935 (after his death) that her son was in Cairo. Obviously, this was found not to be true.
The timeline/events (according to Wikipedia)
January 2nd 1935, a man called Roland T. Owen checks into Hotel President (Room 1046). He was dressed smartly and had a dark overcoat on. The man asks for an interior room and has no bags/luggage with him.
Hotel staff noted a visible scar on the man's forehead as well as cauliflower ear - assuming he was either a boxer/wrestler.
The man only paid for a 1-night stay.
A bellhop by the name of Randolph Propst assisted the man up to his room. The man told Propst that he had spent the previous night in a different hotel but it was too expensive.
A cleaning maid came into the room as I think she had a split shift (I'm not entirely sure) and was surprised to see a man there. She was given the all clear to clean the room. But she noticed that the man staying in this room had the shades drawn and one dimly lit lamp on and this occurred frequently - with the maid saying that she thought his preface for dim lighting was because he was worried or afraid (this was also told to authorities later on).
Before the maid had finished cleaning, the man brushed his hair, put his coat on and asked her to leave the door unlocked as he was expecting some friends. The maid did this and then at 4pm she returned to the room with fresh towels, the room was dark and the man was laying on the bed fully dressed - the maid could see a note that said "Don: I will be back in fifteen minutes. Wait".
January 3rd 1935, the maid returned to the room around 10:30am (I assume for housekeeping), the room was locked so she assumed the guest was out - as it was a door that could only be locked from the outside. But once inside the room, he was just sitting there in the dark. The phone rang, the man said "No, Don. I don't want to eat. I am not hungry. I just had breakfast. No, I am not hungry." He then complained to the maid about the other hotels' prices and the maid finished cleaning and left.
The maid returned around 4pm with another set of fresh towels. The maid could hear two men talking inside the room, so she knocked. A deep voice (not the guests voice) responded to her knock saying they didn't need any fresh towels. This confused the maid as she took the towels out of the room earlier for cleaning.
2 hours later, a person called Jean Owen (from Lee's Summit) had been shopping in Kansas City during the day and started to feel sick so decided to check into a hotel instead of driving home. She was given Room 1048. Her boyfriend came to visit her around 9:20 pm because he worked at a flower shop in the city. He stayed for 2 hours and later that night, Owen had heard men and woman talking really loudly and profanely on her floor.
A hotel elevator operator said that the hotel died down for the majority of the night around 1:30 am except for a really loud party in Room 1055. There was also a woman who staff assumed was a sex worker who had come to see a client in either room 1026/1046 but they weren't in their room so she came back down, confused. The alleged sex worker thought they might have been in room 1024 as a light was on in there. She stayed on the 10th floor for a while.
30 minutes goes by and the alleged sex worker now wants to go to another "client" on the 9th floor - and at 4:15am this woman left the hotel. The the client from the 9th floor, 15 minutes later, wants to go for a walk.
On January 3rd, there was also a possible encounter outside - where a man (who may or may not have been staying at the hotel was running along outside around 11pm with a shirt, underpants and no pants on. He tried to flag one of the hotel workers car's down - but once he stopped, the man apologised and thought it was a taxi. The hotel worker even offered to take him somewhere, and the man was dropped off where he could get a taxi. But the hotel worker noticed something odd about this man - a deep scratch on his arm and he was cupping some sort of wound on his body, like one that wouldn't stop bleeding. The hotel worker saw Ogletree's body later on and believed this was the same man he picked up. We don't know much more than that.
January 4th, 1935, at 7am a new switchboard operator came into work, who was about to dial a wake up call to Room 1046 and noticed that the landline was off the hook.
One of the bellboys went up, to the room and the door was locked with a "Do Not Disturb" sign hung up outside. He knocked and a deep voice told him she could enter, but he was unable to. After a bit of back and forth, he just shouted to hang up the phone and went off.
The bellboy told the operator that the guest was probably drunk and to wait a bit longer. It got to 8:30am and another hotel worker went up to the room. The phone was still off the hook. The do not disturb sign was up and the door was still locked, but this worker had a key to this room so he unlocked it. Inside, the hotel worker found the guest lying there naked and drunk, he left him be and put the phone back on the hook as it had been knocked off somehow.
Just after 10:30am another worker reported that the phone, was again, off the hook. Ogletree was found with blood everywhere in the room, and blood all over his head. The hotel worker went downstairs immediately for help.
Once they returned to the room, Ogletree had fallen over. The placed him on the bathtub and called police. He was found with some sort of cord around his neck, ankles and wrists - bound so he couldn't move. His neck had bruising that suggested someone had been trying to strangle him and even stab wounds on his body. The cords were all cut by a doctor who had asked Ogletree who had done this, who then replied with "nobody". He said he had fallen and hit his head. The doctor also asked if he had been trying to unalive himself and he said no.
Ogletree was then taken to hospital where he passed away just after midnight on the 5th of January.
Investigation + Theories
Obviously, the Kansas City Department began interviewing suspects as soon as they could. The first suspect was Jean Owen (they always thought having the same surname as the alias was weird - but they think that was just a coincidence). She told the police what she heard and when her boyfriend corroborated her story, she was let go.
Cause of death was determined to be from the wounds that were inflicted on Ogletree's body - they believed that the ties on his hands and ankles meant that someone else was involved and they ruled out Ogletree unaliving himself as they found no knives at the scene.
Later developments in the case showed that Ogletree stayed at a third hotel in Kansas City where he shared a room with another man - they never found out if this man was Don.
In 1937, a man called "Joseph Martin" was arrested on a different murder charge - of a man he shared a hotel room with. Martin used many aliases with one being "Donald Kelso" - it was also noted that Martin's handwriting sample matched those sent to Ogletree's mother. However, there doesn't seem to be solid evidence linking Martin to Ogletree.
The case went cold.
In 2003/2004 sometime, a historian researching the case received a phone call from someone who had been helping with the inventory of an elderly person who had recently died. In such items, they came across a shoebox of items related to Ogletree's case - in the shoebox there were newspaper clippings, and one item mentioned? But the caller didn't identify themselves or the item - and this information wasn't released publicly until 2012.
There is an absence of suspects in this case - which is weird in itself - how is there no connections being found?
A couple of theories have emerged including that Ogletree was killed for some sort of retaliation, he was involved with organised crime somehow as the name "Don" is often associated with a Mafia Boss, or that Ogletree was killed for personal reasons.
I don't know if we'll ever know the full story of what happened to Ogletree - but it's likely when he went hitchhiking he got involved with some dodgy people, ultimately leading to his demise.
Thanks for reading!
Much love,
Ash xoxo
Readings
https://buzzfeed-unsolved.fandom.com/wiki/The_Creepy_Murder_In_Room_1046
https://www.al.com/news/erry-2018/09/56ecbe55ac9479/the-mystery-of-what-was-in-the.html
https://husheduphistory.com/post/687631771876130816/off-the-hook-the-bloody-secrets-of-room-1046
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/unsolved-mystery-the-haunting-case-of-room-1046/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/room-1046-murder-roland-t-owen
https://factschology.com/mmm-podcast-articles/artemus-ogletree-roland-t-owen
It's a pity the case has gone cold. I wonder what would have happened if it occurred today-would it be solved?