Kate Morgan
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Kate Morgan (1865-1892) is an Iowan who died under mysterious circumstances, and is thought by some to be a ghost at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. She was buried at nearby Mount Hope Cemetery in Division 5 Section 1.
Morgan (nee Farmer) was born in Hamburg, Iowa in 1865. At the age of 20, she married Tom Morgan, alleged to have been a gambler who worked on trains. According to the Hotel del Coronado's official book (see below) it is not clear whether this was true, or urban lore. The spectacular case of the 'Beautiful Stranger,' which became a national sensation in the Yellow press of 1892, is filled with tantalizing clues, baffling dead ends, and mysterious interweaving threads.
She was found dead on November 29, 1892, of what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. This was five days after checking into the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego. A San Francisco lawyer, the late Allan May, speculated in the 1980s that her death involved foul play. Evidence for the alleged foul play was a passing statement (or misstatement), during the coroner's inquest, that the bullet found in her head did not match that of her own gun.[1]. Given that Mr. May claimed, among other things, to have had dinner with the ghost in her former room on a number of occasions, and conversed with her at length, there are those who will advise readers to approach his book with caution. Nevertheless, whatever the merits of his book, he did revive interest in the subject by causing a stir with his murder theory. Officials reviewing the case, however, reviewed his speculations and chose not to reopen the case. The official verdict remains suicide.
There have been many putative ghost sightings, and other potential paranormal events at Hotel del Coronado since then. The official Hotel del Coronado website [2] mentions the ghost.
The hotel's Heritage Department has published an official book on this subject, written by the hotel's professional historian, titled The Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and The Hotel del Coronado [3]. TIt avoids speculation in its research of historical documents available in local public libraries, historical societies, and university libraries as well as city hall and police files. The Heritage Department's book leans toward the official suicide verdict.
San Diego author John T. Cullen has published a new theory, in which he examines the facts presented in the Heritage Department's book, together with his own research. In his book Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado [4], Cullen conjectures that the reason for the entire affair was a blackmail plot against the hotel's owner, John Spreckels. The plot involved two women--Kate Morgan, described as a ruthless schemer and grifter who planned the entire affair; and Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Wyllie, a reportedly beautiful and gullible unmarried runaway from Detroit who had eloped with her lover, John G. Longfield, after their affair was found out and Wyllie was pregnant (a social death sentence for an unmarried woman in Victorian times). Longfield was married to another woman, and the father of several children. There likely was a second man involved, at least briefly. Although there is no smoking gun that proves the blackmail allegation, this book attempts to tie together all the various threads and clues that have been supposedly hidden in plain sight for generations to create a second theory. The body went through a series of identifications. One of the strong identifications made was that the body was that of Lizzie Wyllie. This i.d. was confirmed by Wyllie's mother in Detroit, but discarded by local authorities in favor of several other possible personas. Ultimately, disregarding the fact that the corpse and Wyllie both had two small birthmarks on the left cheek, the official story was changed on basis of evidence (pierced ears--Wyllie had them, but Morgan and the corpse reportedly did not) that the dead woman was Morgan. The author suggests reasons why John Spreckels' powerful security apparatus might have interfered in the investigation. The ill-fated plot could not have occurred at a worse moment, since Spreckels was at that moment in Washington, D.C., negotiating with President Benjamin Harrison and the United States Congress to save the Hawaiian monarchy. At the same time, Spreckels' father Claus Spreckels was doing last-minute shuttle diplomacy at the court of Queen Liliuokalani in Honolulu. At stake was the family's fortune in Hawaii sugar plantations. In the end, the author feels that Wyllie--betrayed and abandoned by everyone, a 'fallen Victorian angel'--killed herself out of remorse and despair. The final verdict on the mystery is not yet in, but this is a totally fresh take on a tantalizing puzzle that now spans three centuries. Meanwhile, her ghost is said to continue haunting the hotel, scaring both guests and employees.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Alan M. May. The Legend of Kate Morgan: The Search for the Ghost of the Hotel del Coronado. ISBN 1-122-26574-3
- ^ Official website, Hotel del Coronado, History [1]]
- ^ Official Heritage Dept. Book, The Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and The Hotel del Coronado ISBN 978-0916251734
- ^ Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, Second Edition (Nonfiction) by John T. Cullen ISBN 978-0743309509
- ^ Complete, free online text of Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado by John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, 2008 [2]
