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Baba Yaga & The Haunted Hotel del Coronado
21 Plays4 years ago
This week, Felicia covers Baba Yaga, a supernatural being from Slavic folklore. Lauren discusses the paranormal activity at the Hotel del Coronado, specifically Kate Morgan, "the beautiful stranger". You don't want to miss this episode! Felicia also tells a true scary story that happened to her family and we maybe have our first spooky occurrence happen in real time on the podcast??
If you have requests for future episodes or just want to hang out follow us on Instagram @sinistersisterspodcast
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Transcript
Introduction and Spooky Beginnings
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to the Sinister Sisters podcast. I'm Felicia. I'm Lauren. We're best friends. And we like spooky stuff. Oh, yeah. And we do have some recommendations. But first, I just got off my family Zoom, which we do almost every Sunday now since COVID started. It's the cutest thing. It really is. It's really the closest we've all been in many years since we all lived in a house together.
Bobcat Encounter and Heroic Rescue
00:00:39
Speaker
So my brother Thomas lives in North Carolina on a pretty big piece of property. There's like woods and like very naturey. So he lives there with his wife Heather and my two nephews. And he was out somewhere the other day. And Heather was inside of the kitchen. One of my nephews was outside playing. The dog was also outside. And she said she started hearing her dog Sadie do this bark she had never heard before.
00:01:09
Speaker
like something very guttural, very scary, like something was clearly extremely wrong. So she runs outside. She looks around and she sees a bobcat in their yard with with my tiny nephew outside and their Dalmatian puppy.
00:01:32
Speaker
Oh my god. Oh my god. I know. So she runs out there. She grabs Wyatt, my nephew pulls him inside. And then she goes out the back, she gets the dog gets it inside. And then she calls Thomas, obviously, and Thomas is like, not answering the phone.
00:01:49
Speaker
So Thomas has a different dad than me. So his dad actually was right next door to him. And so she's calling his dad. She ended up calling my aunt and uncle, Tammy and Daryl. I'm really just using all the names here. No last name is fine. And just freaking out, because there's a freaking bobcat in the freaking yard. And so finally, my brother gets home pretty soon after that. And at this point, he's heard that.
00:02:16
Speaker
Bobcats, they're as big as a large dog, but they're extremely dangerous. And they're not typically interested in coming anywhere near humans. So it's a very bad sign that it was even in their area. Does it hurt? Just kidding. I shouldn't hurt. I don't know. I think they're doing tests to see if it has rabies or something, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
00:02:40
Speaker
So my brother gets out of his car. He gets like some kind of like shotgun situation. They're they're in North Carolina. They have, you know, they have hunted. They hunt stuff like that. And so he gets his gun. And at some point, I hope I'm not telling this too wrong. I hope I got all the beats. But basically, it ran under their front porch.
00:03:01
Speaker
And so they're outside and he Oh, and Heather called the she called 911 because she was like, I don't know who to call. And so she called 911 and the lady was like, there has been another there. There was an attack with a bobcat in the area. You need to kill this bobcat.
00:03:17
Speaker
And Heather is like, I can't kill this bobcat. What? That is the advice from the 911 woman is sorry, you have to kill this bobcat down. Not like all call animal control. Yes. And no, so they did. They were also called animal control. But she was like, this is a dangerous bobcat. It needs to be put down if you can. I thought it was like, we don't have enough staff. I'm relying on you. You're gonna have to deal with this.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah. And so my brother tries to shoot at it from under the porch, but it's very dark. He can't see. But the sound that the bobcat is making is this huge, loud, like snarling roaring that is like so loud and like horrifying. Like they're like, it was disturbing. It was like a disturbing noise. So finally, my Aunt Tammy and Uncle Daryl came over.
00:04:08
Speaker
And Daryl, Daryl takes care of business, okay? Like they both do, but he, like they also sent me this like, what? No law enforcement is there. No law enforcement is here yet. But I will also say that my auntie and uncle Daryl also sent me this like crazy rat poison because my, I had a mouse problem and nothing would help. Like we had done every single kind of trap and whatever they sent me worked. So they always saved the day. Oh, that mouse.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah. But so my uncle, they all brought his like hunting gun over. He got under there, shot it, then immediately crawled under the porch to pull it out like just unafraid, just like fine. And they pulled it out. And I'll also do a picture. It's very, it's very sad because obviously it's like an animal. But what they found out is there had been a man near them that had been attacked.
00:05:05
Speaker
And I have pictures of that as well. And this bobcat like attacked him hard, like their puncture wounds on his Oliver's body, like slashes like full on animal attack. I know Lauren's face is horrible.
00:05:19
Speaker
I'm like, I feel like I'm not giving good podcast reactions because I am just stunned, silently stunned. And then eventually, I guess either animal control or Oh, I think it was the sheriff and like, obviously, it's like a small town. So like, every day, like all know each other, like the sheriff came, I don't know, it's like out of a movie or something.
00:05:37
Speaker
And they took it away to get it tested to see if it had rabies because they were like worried that that other animal attack, if it was rabies, like obviously bad stuff. So yeah, it's crazy. Like a lot of people are involved, but also like Heather basically saved the day, like literally saved Wyatt and their dog and just like freaking went out there fearless. I mean, full of fear, but in spite of the fear and freaking. Yeah.
Urban vs Rural Dangers Discussion
00:06:01
Speaker
And then I told Travis, my boyfriend, this story. And he was like, see, this is why we can't live anywhere.
00:06:07
Speaker
that has that much grass and trees. We just, we can't do it. You don't know what's out there. People probably say that about New York too. We just have to deal with scary people. Exactly. I'm like, yeah, we have all the scary people here. I'm not sure what's worse, a scary, a scary person attack you or a scary podcast. I've never heard of like any kind of I was just thinking about like, I don't think I've had
00:06:32
Speaker
I don't know, someone, yeah, be actually attacked by an animal or, you know, might have been attacked by an animal. I mean, it's also very, like I said, it's a very rare occurrence. Like that's why they think something was wrong with the bobcat, either it was like sick or something, because it really would not typically come out into someone's yard or around people at all. Like it would just stay away. But yeah, scary stuff. Wow. I think a real scary story for you this week.
00:06:59
Speaker
That was scary. I would have just locked my door and never emerged again. I mean, I would have done what Heather did, which is called the police. Yes. I wouldn't know what else to do. No, certainly not. Certainly not. Also a good job on the dog for alerting her. Yes, Sadie. Good job, Sadie. It's also a Dalmatian named Sadie. She's just like a beautiful, beautiful creature. But that also reminds me.
00:07:24
Speaker
When I lived in my first, sorry, this is like Felicia Corner. When I lived in my first New York City apartment and I went to sleep at 11 p.m. the first night there by myself and I woke up with a giant, well, I now know to be a water bug, but I thought it was a huge fucking fist sized cockroach on my on my bare chest. And I obviously screamed and immediately just like called the land
00:07:54
Speaker
lady, company, whatever. I was like, I have an emergency. And they were like, ma'am, this is not an emergency. Ma'am, this is a regular Tuesday. It was on my chest. She was like, ma'am, just flush it down the toilet. This is not an emergency. I think it was you that taught me about raid. That's the way to do it. Raid is amazing. The second you have raid, you can do anything. Raid is the only thing. And also, if you're interested,
00:08:24
Speaker
My Tia, another aunt, told me if you don't have a gun, which I'm not super interested in having, you can have wasp spray next to your bed because it'll shoot at 10 feet into someone's eyes. Oh, I'll do that. I'll get wasp spray and put it in my bed. We're here for the hot tips from my entire family. I'm about to live alone. I need that wasp spray. You need it. You need it. Oh, my God. You're going to live alone. That's so crazy.
00:08:53
Speaker
I might be spooked. I have to get a dog very soon. You should get a dog or a cat even just like something that's like another presence in the space. Yes. Who can alert me when a bobcat is outside my door? Yes. But honestly, you should just get a dog because I feel like I need a dog. I want a little dog that I can take on the plane with me. So it has to be an emotional support dog. A Toby sized dog. It has to. I can't have a golden retriever. Yeah. Oh, golden retriever. Oh, man.
00:09:23
Speaker
That was a really exciting story. Yeah, so how many minutes in are we now without talking about anything? Only 10. That's not so bad. No, my favorite murderer would have like 40 more minutes of this. That's so true. That's so true. Okay,
Movie Recommendations and Commentary
00:09:38
Speaker
recommendations. Do you want to go first or do you want me?
00:09:40
Speaker
I can go first because you actually segued into my recommendation. So you mentioned a Dalmatian, so I was going to recommend Cruella. Boom. People are loving it. I haven't seen it yet, but people are really loving that movie. I really, really loved it. It felt like Devil Wears Prada meets Birds of Prey.
00:10:01
Speaker
Oh, I mean, that just sold me. That sold me. Yes. It's like it's silly. It's a Disney movie. But like I thought the costumes were unbelievably amazing. I think I have to do one of hers for Halloween this year. We'll see. Do this one segment where she just has like outfit after outfit after outfit. Oh, my God. And I might do it. But because it's like an excellent and excellent cosplayer.
00:10:27
Speaker
Thank you. She's built some sick costumes in her day. You'll see. I can't even tell you which one it is because it's such a good reveal, but there's one that I'm like, ooh, that's it. Because I don't think a lot of people will do it. I'm going to try to guess it. I'll watch it this week and I'll try to guess the costume. Yes, please do. Please do. It was a lot funnier and darker than I thought, honestly, which I don't know how it was both.
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the thing I'm curious about is, you know, it's literally about a lady who skins puppies. I'm not really sure how you you I mean, I don't even know how they swung that the first time. I know. Truly, truly. It's pretty dark. It's pretty dark. But like you, I don't know. You have a lot of sympathy for her. They still like you'll see they like kind of get to the skinning puppies, but not really. She's not like fully Cruella, but but close. She's a young Cruella.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yes, definitely. But I really enjoyed it, had a lot of fun. I went with my mom and my aunt and they were both like a little tipsy from going to the vineyard before. Oh, beautiful. Or winery. Why did I say vineyard? I mean, I did both. Yeah. But they had both had a wine flight and then they were like laughing their heads off.
00:11:40
Speaker
Delighted by the law. That's beautiful. I'm trying. I guess I'll probably just watch it here because I know I'm going to go see a quiet place in theaters sometime this week. So maybe I'll then I'll watch. Isn't that crazy? That's an option now for some movies. Just like, oh, I'll watch that one at home because it's already on whatever. I don't know. You have to pay for it, though. Like it's probably something extra. Yeah. I can't remember what it is on Disney Plus, but yeah. Yeah, that's my rec.
00:12:07
Speaker
Oh, nice. I'll watch it. Mine is I watched The Conjuring 3. I already reviewed it, but it's so funny. I feel like after this happens to me, like every time I post a video, I start just think like I post it and then like an hour later, I think of like all these things I meant to talk about that I never talked about. So I'll mention a couple other things here.
00:12:30
Speaker
So it's a change in writer and director from the first two Conjuring films. And I think that is very felt in this because in terms of like a Conjuring movie, like the vibe is the same, the aesthetics, the scares,
00:12:46
Speaker
it kind of checks off all the boxes of like that type of paranormal fun kind of ghost movie that we're typically trying to go in for when we see a conjuring universe film. But they kind of have a straight forward story of, you know, based on a real case where this guy already tried to
00:13:06
Speaker
plead innocent for a murder by saying the devil made him do it because he was possessed, blah, blah. So I thought the movie was going to be kind of a strong mix of conjuring universe and crime drama. Right.
00:13:22
Speaker
And that's what I was really like hungry for and excited about. And then it really ended up just being a Conjuring movie with the stuff kind of just like thrown in at the end in like a very quick thing, which is not really how it was advertised, by the way. Yeah. But I mean, it was still it was a fun movie. But it's basically ends up being about like this
00:13:44
Speaker
which that is like cursing three people. And one of the people that was cursed is the reason that Arnie got possessed. Sorry, that's like very.
00:13:56
Speaker
confusing. No, but someone pointed out to me on Twitter, or maybe I'm actually maybe in a YouTube comment, who knows that they never say why the witch is doing this. And that just blew my mind because I have realized I had watched this entire movie about a witch like
00:14:16
Speaker
doing this evil thing and never knowing why she did it. And I felt very disappointed once I once someone told me that. But that's also like a very normal thing of those type of movies, like demons, ghosts, like they're terrorizing to terrorize. There's not typically like a great reason, you know, it's just like it's just happening. But the witch thing, it's like I kind of felt like baby, she needed a why because she's like a person, but she didn't really have one.
00:14:45
Speaker
And then, sorry, I'm like going off on this right now because Twitter just blew my mind around so many things this week about the Conjuring series because I'm a fan. I love the Conjuring movies. As you know, I saw The Nun in theaters and had a good old time like whatever. I don't care that it's that I don't really care that if it's bad, it's just like fun for me like this. The vibe, it's like it's like a perfect spooky
00:15:11
Speaker
five. But what someone was pointing out, and I think it's the faculty of horror podcast, there's Andre and there's the and there's Alex, Alex, and she pointed out how the conjuring universe is very much like conservative horror. And she had like a whole thread about it. But like the idea of like,
00:15:32
Speaker
good and evil and like religion trumping evil and love conquering all like the Warren's left. That's so interesting. Yeah. And I've never thought of that once in my whole life. Yeah. And I've seen now eight Conjuring films. And I thought that was very interesting. So it was it is interesting way to think about like, those movies that are very based in in religion and like what that's kind of telling you through storytelling. It's interesting.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yes, and just like I feel like religion has been obviously such a source for horror for so long. Especially like Catholicism, like holy bananas. Yeah, truly, truly for so long. Also like people still are possessed, like that still happens. It's happening, the church is like it's happening.
00:16:22
Speaker
It just both. I don't know. Yes. It's just really weird for me to think about. Like there are still people who are supposedly like being exercised. Yeah. And there's like priests that have to get like certified and exercising demons.
00:16:40
Speaker
And it's also funny because we think about so many people in our country that are so like, you know, good, I mean, finger, what is this called? Quotations. She's doing finger quotes. Finger quotes. Good Christian, whatever. And like, I feel like that part of Christianity, though still very active, is not very acknowledged, because I guess it's like the darker side of Christianity. But it's very
00:17:07
Speaker
I mean, if you believe in angels, I guess you have to believe in demons, right? I don't know. Yeah, I think so. What a conversation. Look at us discussing religion. And then we end the end of the podcast. We end. I'm kidding. I'm excited for our topics today. Oh, my god. Yeah, I have a topic. OK.
Folklore and Mysteries: Baba Yaga and Kate Morgan
00:17:28
Speaker
So I'm going first. Woo-hoo. Woo-woo. All right. As always, I hope I researched enough. We'll find out.
00:17:36
Speaker
This is a very interesting one. So today I'm talking about the Baba Yaga, which is basically it's from Slavic folklore. And it's kind of in the most general sense, like an evil old witch that lives in the woods.
00:17:53
Speaker
We've seen it a thousand times. We love them. We might become them. It's like, who knows? That's what I was just going to say. We'll just have a little house when our husbands die. We'll just get a little house. It's just the two of us. And get very old and wear cloaks and eat children. And drink blood to stay young and beautiful. And drink blood. Yes, absolutely. The Baba Yaga, I thought it was hilarious because when you look at Baba Yaga, all I could see is baby Yoda.
00:18:22
Speaker
Yes. Yes. The spelling I was like, this is shocking. So anyways, but I looked into it. So so to kind of talk about where the words come from, Baba, obviously, like my first thought babushka grandmother, it could also mean
00:18:37
Speaker
midwife or fortune teller, just kind of this like female maternal kind of character. And then Yaga, there's like a lot of different thoughts about where that word comes from. But in general, it's associated with words like evil, scary, witch. So we have this kind of like grandma witch. Baba Yaga might be the name of my dog.
00:19:02
Speaker
It should be. Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga, come here. This is a character I don't know, and I haven't seen in a lot of pop culture here, but it's a very well-known in, like, Russia, like, in their TV shows, their cartoons. Like, it's a kind of, it's a reoccurring character. It's a very well-known character, just as I would say, like, our evil witch is, you know, very well-known. So in terms of what she looks like, lots of different versions, but kind of this old,
00:19:31
Speaker
crone-like woman. She's very gaunt. She has very skinny legs. And some say that her legs are just the bones. There's nothing else. Just a couple of bones. But I wish I had. Yeah. Just a few bones. And then she has a very long nose. And my favorite thing that I heard on the
00:19:56
Speaker
I always listen to Monstrom, the PBS channel, but they say like her nose is so long that when she lays down, it touches the ceiling.
00:20:06
Speaker
Which seems very- She's like Pinocchio. Yeah, which seems excessively long. But yeah, in some stories she has horns, these giant teeth, and her house, which is my kind of favorite part of it, is a spinning house in the middle of the woods, or like really like a shack, like a little tiny nothing. And it stands up on two giant, get this, chicken legs.
00:20:34
Speaker
spinning? So the house spins. Yeah. And the chicken legs are just going. That's what I'm not clear about. I'm like, are the chicken legs also spinning? Are the chicken legs still? And the house is spinning? I don't know. But this is a very well known image. And once again, like, Oh, there's even an episode of Arthur, where there is a house with chicken legs, like chasing someone. And like, I think it's like a dream sequence or something.
00:20:58
Speaker
So this is like a well-known thing that I've just never seen in my life. Arthur had a lot going on. Arthur had a lot going on. Still does. So it's kind of like this very whimsical thing going on, which is it's very fun because it feels a little bit more like I feel like an R.
00:21:16
Speaker
Actually, that's not really true. I was going to say, like, in our, like, grim fairy tales, it seems like a lot more just, like, people doing things. Like, Eva Witch, Princess, Queen, they live in a house, they live in a palace, they live in a whatever, where it's like, this seems much more whimsical to me. Oh, oh, I can't forget the way that Baba Yaga gets around in a, dang it, what's the thing where you, like, stir herbs together in? Mortar and pestle? Mortar. Mortar.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yes. And using a pestle. Okay. The mortars. She flies around in a mortar. Okay. Thank you. A mortar? I guess that's what it's called. I think that's what it's called. And uses a pestle as a rudder and just flies around in this thing, which I think is such a great, great image. Like who needs a broomstick?
00:22:10
Speaker
when you have a mortar and pestle. Exactly. She's oaring with the pestle. I think basically, yes, that's the pictures on the Internet. That's basically what it looks like to me. So great. So and then so when you come upon her, her house, not only do you have this chicken leg house, but it's also there's also a fence made of human bones. Oh, so then the idea is that Baba Yaga is a cannibal who and this is kind of, you know,
00:22:39
Speaker
classic fairy tale situation, you know, be good child or Baba Yaga will come eat you up. It's that kind of idea, I think. But she has a couple of sides to her. She's not just the simple evil witch that we think about in our
00:22:57
Speaker
culture. She has two sides to her. Depending on how you behave, she could either be an evil witch who's going to like chew you up and like, you know, do something weird with your bones. Who knows?
00:23:10
Speaker
But if you're good, she'll actually like help you out and be like kind of a guide or like a wise, not like a sweet grandma, but will kind of like help you out in some in some way. So when you come upon her house, one of the like, there's a million also types of stories in which this character comes up, but in one of them,
00:23:29
Speaker
when you come up to her house, it's spinning. And you say, little house, little house, turn your back to the forest and your friend to me, and the house will stop. And then you can go in and see Baba Yaga for whatever you need. If you need something. Oh, yeah. So there's a couple of stories I'm going to mention kind of two. There's one that sounded very Cinderella esque to me where there's kind of this, this girl who so her father,
00:23:58
Speaker
I guess sells her to Baba Yaga as a servant. And when she gets there, she has to do all these chores and whatever. And she has all the mice like help her and she works really hard. And then after a few years, Baba Yaga makes her incredibly rich.
00:24:16
Speaker
And so her dad comes back and he's like, wow, you're rich now. That's awesome. And then her stepmother classic is like, what? So she's like, OK, well, I'm going to take my daughter over there and then she'll become rich, too. So she takes her over to Baba Yaga. She chases the mice away. She's just not nice to anyone. She doesn't want to do the work. And so Baba Yaga hearing what she does, I think she eats her.
00:24:44
Speaker
feels right. Yeah. So there's there's that kind of story. And then I think the most famous one is Vasilia. Wait, Vasilisa, Vasilisa the beautiful. And, and this is this beautiful young maiden, who once again lives with her stepmother, her two step sisters. And they are basically conspiring to have her murdered, because
00:25:10
Speaker
Facilia is too beautiful. She has all these suitors. They're jealous of her. She's also nice. They hate that. Damn. Nice and beautiful killer. Yeah. I feel like someone who's actually Russian is going to listen to this and just be like, wow, way to butcher all of our beautiful stories. So bizarre.
00:25:31
Speaker
That's all right. Yeah. So they. Oh, so basically one night the stepsisters blow out the candle that's keeping the house lit and they say, oh, the Celia, you have to go to Baba Yaga and get some get a light, get some fire so we can like, you know, live here because there's no electricity. And she's like, OK, great. So she goes over to the Baba Yaga's house and when she gets there,
00:26:01
Speaker
instead of killing her, Baba Yaga's like, or eating her, she's like, Okay, here's a bunch of tasks, you have to make a giant dinner, you have to clean the linens, you have to sweep the floors, you have to like, separate grains from rice, like all these little tasks. And some version of this story, Vasilia has this doll that I think her mother had given her, who is like,
00:26:24
Speaker
adagone has this doll that her mother gave her that she can ask questions, ask advice from and the doll always like answers her and helps her in life. And so the doll is like helping her she gets all these tasks done. And Baba Yaga is so impressed. She's like, All right, girl, well done. Here is one of
00:26:45
Speaker
So remember at the fence of bones on each post, there is a skull with a light inside and they're glowing skulls.
00:26:56
Speaker
great imagery. Yes. These stories are so complex. I know. And I'm just butchering them to death. And then so she's like, okay, you can take one of the skulls home so you can have a light. You've done a great job. And so she takes one of the skulls, she goes home. Obviously her stepsisters are like shocked that she's there. And
00:27:18
Speaker
So when she holds up the skull, what should happen is the light shoots out of the skull's eyes and then basically burn her stepsisters alive. Oh, my God.
00:27:32
Speaker
And the stepmother engulfs them all in flames and kills them. And then the Silesa, I still can't figure out how to say her name, she ends up marrying the Tsar. So she does great in life and her whole family is burned alive thanks to Baba Yaga.
00:27:50
Speaker
Things like this in fairy tales, I'm like, I understand that that's helpful. But did you have to like, burn them alive in front of like, she's not well after she saw, even if she hated them, she probably didn't burn a lot of trauma. I mean, this is before no one's thought about trauma until like the last 50 years, nobody was concerned.
00:28:09
Speaker
That's true. She just moved on with her life. She married the Zara. She was happy. Yeah, I can't imagine like, you know, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago in Russia, they were at all concerned about traumatizing children. I feel like they were just like, yeah, you know, Bobby, I guess she's going to crush up your bones and snort them like she doesn't even care. It's true. It's dark. Yeah. So that's I mean, that's basically the character. But the thing that I liked most about her
00:28:38
Speaker
is just that she is mostly fair. And she is she is a, you know, quote unquote, evil witch that will eat children or whatever. And she's down to do that. But if you are good and you're smart and you're, you know, willing to work, then she will treat you well.
00:28:56
Speaker
I love that it's like she's testing people's hardworkingness, their work ethic. Yes, absolutely. And that also somehow feels like, Russian to me, it's like work hard. Yes, yes. Also the idea of, especially in the times these stories are written, the physical labor, it's encouraging kids to be like, okay, yes, you have to do this. You have to go chop wood, you have to do this thing.
00:29:20
Speaker
So, yeah, getting child labor, just getting child labor. That's my story. I liked it. I loved it. Baba Yaga. Yeah. I'll post some good pics. Yeah. There's some really great. There's a lot. There's a ton. But there's some there's some really good art. I want to see the chicken leg house. Yeah. Chasing you. Classic.
00:29:44
Speaker
Since we don't have official ads for the podcast yet, we'll do one for ourselves. We would love if you could subscribe to us and leave a review. Also, if you want some pics to go along with the episodes, follow us on Instagram at sinister sisters podcast. And now on to the next story.
00:30:03
Speaker
So I'm taking us to a haunted hotel. Oh, thank God. So I'm going to mostly focus on one ghost in this hotel. But I'll get into some of there's another famous ghost that has apparently been seen at this hotel that makes me laugh. So I'm going to talk about it at the end. But I'm mostly focusing on Kate Morgan. So she was a woman, an American woman who died under mysterious circumstances at
00:30:32
Speaker
this hotel. And the hotel is Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California. Very like Hollywood kind of feeling hotel. Oh, I have an image. Nice. Yes. So she was born Kate Farmer in Fremont County, Iowa. Iowa girl. I love it. In 1864, long time ago. So her mother died a year after she was born, and she was sent to live with her maternal grandfather.
00:31:01
Speaker
So the next kind of thing that happened to her, because this is all that happened to women at that time, was on December 30th, 1865, she married Thomas Edwin Morgan. And they only had one child who was born on Halloween. Just like both of our children will be born. Can you imagine we like hold our children inside of us so that they are born? Don't you dare. Don't you dare.
00:31:30
Speaker
You better not be October 30th. No. So she gave birth to this boy. He lived two days and died. Real sad. Very sad. So four years later.
00:31:45
Speaker
she leaves her husband to run away with another man, whose name is Albert Allen, who is the stepson of Thomas, her husband's stepmother, so her husband's stepbrother, runs away with him. She doesn't even care. She's like, I'm out of here. I'm taking her brother with me.
00:32:03
Speaker
Exactly. Twisting the knife a little. Unfortunately, their relationship does not appear to have lasted, but there aren't a ton of records about her life, so who knows? Maybe they were together. The next thing that happened that I'm going to talk about is that she arrived at the Hotel Del Coronado in late November of 1892. In some reports on Thanksgiving Day, but I can't tell if it just makes it a better story to say Thanksgiving.
00:32:31
Speaker
She checked in under a pseudonym, Mrs. Lottie A. Bernard from Detroit. Why she chose Detroit? I don't know, mysterious. So the staff reported that she looked beautiful, well-dressed, classy, like a lady, but was troubled, ill, and melancholy. So she apparently told some hotel employees that she was waiting for a gentleman to join her.
00:32:57
Speaker
And there's a couple different variations on who people think the gentleman was. But the next thing anyone knew, she was found dead on November 29, 1892, on the outside staircase of the hotel leading to the beach of what was believed to be suicide, that she had shot herself in the head. She was only like, I think it's like 24 to 27-ish, like mid-20s. And it was five days after checking into the hotel.
00:33:27
Speaker
So creepy, creepy. That is a mystery already. Yes. So as I said, she was, you know, she had checked into the hotel under a fake name. So when her body was found, they couldn't find anything to identify her. So they sent the description of her. It was telegraphed to police agencies across the country. And as a result, newspapers began to refer to Kate as the beautiful stranger, which I just think is a cool ghost name.
00:33:56
Speaker
After Kate Morgan's identity was confirmed and people knew she was married but estranged from her husband, then people started spreading the rumor that she was either meeting a lover or waiting for some man to meet her.
00:34:12
Speaker
So she had been employed as seemingly like a house servant for a wealthy Los Angeles household. And from there she traveled by train to the hotel. So supposedly fellow passengers had seen her or seen a woman matching her description on the train arguing with a male companion who then left, left her. So she continued on on her own. People say that she reportedly, people saw her
00:34:42
Speaker
traveling to San Diego to buy a handgun. And I'm sorry, can you tell me what year this was again? I know you said it. Yes. So she arrived in late November 1892. And she was found dead November 29. Yeah, okay. Sorry.
00:34:57
Speaker
1892. So people think she got a gun. She only communicated with the housekeeper who cleaned her room. And she reportedly told this housekeeper that she had stomach cancer, which I feel like makes me think more likely suicide, if she knew she was dying of this disease.
00:35:18
Speaker
Oh, sad. So some people also muse that the man she was waiting on could have been a doctor like coming to meet her to to care for her there. And it kind of makes sense because they did find in her room, they found like a bottle of camphor, which is like a cream to relieve itching. And then also some I'm not sure I'm going to say this correctly. Quinin pills. We'll see. But it's like pain medication, basically.
00:35:47
Speaker
I don't know. No, I don't know. It's Q-U-I-N-I-N-E. I wonder if that's like playloots. Have you ever seen Wolf of Wall Street? Yes. Yes. We'll be in our decaf area like falling down the stairs and it's like a hundred stairs, but it's like five stairs. I'm sorry. We're recording late night tonight, which we do not typically do, and I'm feeling a little loose.
00:36:10
Speaker
We are loose. We are doing it. I like late night recording. Yeah, it's fine. Loose late night. But apparently, those pain meds can also be used if you overuse them. It can be used to cause an abortion. So then there was a lot of rumors going around that she was pregnant and she was trying to kill the baby.
00:36:34
Speaker
really lots of theories going on, but we know that the pain meds came from it. Like there was a note with them that said, if this doesn't relieve you, you better send for the doctor, which was signed by like, you know, I guess it's what is, I don't even know what the 1890 version of like a pharmacist is the person who gave drugs. But so a lot of people have suspected foul play. People aren't sure that
00:36:58
Speaker
you know, she committed suicide. So apparently the gun, her gun had the bullet that was found in her head did not match that of her own gun that was next to her, which is odd. But unfortunately her death was never questioned by her grandfather. It actually sounds really sad. Basically when they found out who she was, like her husband didn't want to come. No family members came out to identify her body. I know.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I know it was harder to get around back then, but still. Geez, it's like a little rude.
00:37:35
Speaker
Very rude. So basically, her grandfather wired funds for them to bury her. So the funeral took place with none of her loved ones there. Her casket was taken to a nearby cemetery called Mount Hope Cemetery to be buried. And then her grave remained unmarked for almost 100 years until an author looking into the story, kind of investigating it, had a headstone placed, marking her burial spot.
00:38:04
Speaker
Sounds like the recipe for a ghost, in my opinion. Yes. Unhappy burial. Yeah, I'm also just like, what if it was never her all along because she was never identified?
00:38:18
Speaker
It could have been. It could have been. There are also theories out there that like that Lottie is actually a woman that existed, like the name I think existed. There's a lot of like, you should look into it if you're interested in any like, you know, classic like Reddit or YouTube, like rabbit holes, rabbit holes. There's a lot of people that are like, you know, still looking into it and investigating it. It's kind of one of those things that sucks because it was so long ago that there's not a ton of information. They should exhume that body. I know. They should do it. At least just see if it was pregnant.
00:38:47
Speaker
That's what I was going to say. I wonder what you could find out at this point, though. Yeah, I don't know. Who knows? Anyone? We did the least amount of preservation because nobody knew. Oh, God, yeah. I'm sure it was a cheap burial. Yeah.
00:39:01
Speaker
Anyway, there is a hotel, the hotel sells this book that's called Beautiful Stranger the Ghost of Kate Morgan. So you can definitely look into that if you're interested. But as you can all know, we're getting to, you know, many guests and employees have gone to the Hotel Del Coronado and have felt seen experience paranormal activity by Kate Morgan.
00:39:25
Speaker
So, just like the Shining, she had a guest room that is room 3327, where obviously it is a sought-after room. It is the most frequently requested room at the hotel to this day. Of course. The staff is totally involved. You can look up her information on the hotel website to learn more about her.
00:39:49
Speaker
Apparently you can ask the staff their experiences with Kate Morgan. Very cool. But visitors have experienced a lot of different things, including flickering lights, a television that turns itself on and off, breezes coming from nowhere, curtains billowing in the windows with no one in the room, inexplicable scenes and sounds, items moving of their own accord, doors that randomly open and close, abrupt changes in room temperatures, and unexplained footsteps and voices.
00:40:19
Speaker
Lauren, can I tell you something? What? Some like weird sound thing just happened and it was like, no, don't look behind you. It's okay. So I'm like a sound glitch while you were talking. You were like, scary. And I, my whole, my whole heart stopped. That was, I don't know. I hope it recorded. Cause if so, that was really scary. Don't do this.
00:40:48
Speaker
I'm in my basement and I'm terrified! I liked that when I was like, Lauren, you were like, looked behind, you were like, what is it? Everyone knows that I am a skeptic and I'm also terrified. Yeah, are you? Literally, please do. I've been very cold in this basement this entire time. Do you feel a strange breeze? I feel soaked in sweat instantly.
00:41:14
Speaker
Honestly, same, literally that noise happened and it scared me so much. My heart stopped, I started sweating, and then I was just like, I have to stop her. You know what's scary, Felicia? I'm really freaking myself out. I was talking to Jo the other day on the phone, and I literally heard like,
00:41:30
Speaker
That's what it sounded like. It was like, like, I hope it's on the recording. I want to stop and listen, but you'll listen later tonight, I guess. Oh, my gosh, I have to go through this really fast and run upstairs. That's my favorite thing of my whole youth. It's just like the idea of like, no matter when I was leaving the basement, like I had to turn off the light and then immediately sprint up the stairs until I was a teenager, like my whole life.
00:41:52
Speaker
No, I still do it. I still literally, I'm leaving the lights on tonight. I don't know. Yeah, just do it. It's worth it. Okay. So I shall finish this out. Yeah. But people have experienced a lot of different things. Mostly people claim to see her creepy eyes in the mirror, which I think would be terrifying. They claim to smell her sweet perfume. I can't smell. I wouldn't know.
00:42:16
Speaker
No, that's Lauren's fun fact. She just can't smell. It's nothing. I just can't smell. It's not spooky. It's just a fact. But people are even able to get pictures of her hypothetically. People take pictures at the hotel and claim that she's in the background. And she's normally reported to look kind of like the pictures of her in real life, like long black dress, high neck, everything.
00:42:44
Speaker
spooky. So a lot of researchers have documented supernatural activity in her room using paranormal gadgetry. There have been sightings of her in the hotel hallways and along the seashore. Another very active area is the gift shop, weirdly, which I think is interesting.
00:43:05
Speaker
Or just the hoax to get people to buy the book on the ghost. I am suspicious now that I'm saying it out loud. But people routinely witness haunted happenings in the gift shop with giftware flying off the shelves. Sometimes things fall upright and they don't break.
00:43:30
Speaker
But her story's on the hotel website, as I said. And overall, she's thought of as a relatively harmless ghost. Relatively well-meaning. Not out to get anyone. Yeah, I know. So the other weird thing is that, so as I said, there are other ghosts or people feel like there are other ghosts at this hotel. Okay, now every time you make a face, I'm terrified.
00:43:55
Speaker
I'm so sorry. Well, I just realized because I'm vlogging right now. Sorry. But I realized I filmed that whole thing. So we're going to have it. But just to me, unfortunately, I wish I had been facing the camera, but I'll send it to you later. I can't wait.
00:44:10
Speaker
But so room 3519 is supposedly also haunted. So some say more haunted than Kate's room. But like one of the more famous stories that is that in 1983, a Secret Service agent was staying there while guarding George H.W. Bush when he was still vice president, I guess, before he was president. So the special agent bolted out of the room in the middle of the night, claiming he had heard unearthly gurgling noises. Is that what you heard?
00:44:38
Speaker
No, no, it was more like a shriek.
00:44:46
Speaker
I don't know. I hope it's on the podcast. Okay. And the entire room seemed to glow, he claimed. So people think that he encountered a ghost related to the Kate Morgan mystery. Apparently there was a maid that stayed in that room. And in some versions of the story, she traveled with Kate and others. She is like the housekeeper that Kate shared her stomach cancer reveal with, but whatever the connection between the two,
00:45:14
Speaker
the maid allegedly vanished the same morning that Kate was found dead. So I don't know if she murdered Kate or if she too was murdered, but freaky. Don't love it.
00:45:29
Speaker
And another story goes that in 1888, the same year the hotel was built, a wealthy man kept his mistress in room 3519. And when the woman found out she was pregnant, she killed herself, which also feels like another interesting tie if we think that Kate Morgan could hypothetically have been.
00:45:49
Speaker
pregnant. Oh my God. I don't know. So in that story, her body was removed from the hotel and nothing else is known about her, not even her name because he like, he covered up the whole thing. So ghost hunters believe that that also like there have been different people that have covered that story and have thought that that is the presence in 3519 is just this wealthy man's mistress. But my favorite, did you hear that? No, I didn't.
00:46:16
Speaker
No, I'm so jumpy. This is a hilarious podcast. But the most famous ghost that people have said they've seen in Hotel Del Coronado is the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. Did you think we were going there? Love it. I didn't know, but I love it.
00:46:33
Speaker
So she did love the Hotel Del Coronado when she was alive. She stayed there when she was filming Some Like It Hot. And her ghost has apparently appeared at several different places, people think, including Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel, where people see her in the lobby's mirror. So I kind of want to look into that story now. But she is rumored to be seen at the Hotel Del Coronado outdoors.
00:46:56
Speaker
And people claim to see her walking along the beach or near the door to the hotel. And they comment on her classic blonde hair and that she's wearing a fringe shawl on the beach, fluttering in the breeze. But others have claimed to hear her distinct giggle in the second and third floor hallways. But I think maybe Kate Morgan could have a Marilyn Monroe giggle. I don't know. Would you rather hear a ghost or see a ghost?
00:47:27
Speaker
Neither. I think I'd rather hear a ghost because I could explain it away maybe. I don't know. What do you think? I'd rather, I'm very sensitive to sound as we learned today, but I feel, so I feel like I'd rather see one and it would like give me the proof I need. Yes. Yes. I feel that.
00:47:53
Speaker
Like sounds are just so jump scary to me. They really are. No, they really are. Especially after maybe we're so jumpy because of that bobcat story. Maybe we really set the tone. A real life like now I'm like, is there a bobcat outside? Well, that's kind of it on the Hotel Del Coronado and the ghost of Kate Morgan. I'm really sad that I like there is no answer really to her mysterious death, but
00:48:22
Speaker
I know it's bad to exhume bodies because it's bad to disturb graves. But I'm like, if there's this much controversy around it, couldn't they write a letter to someone and make it happen? I'm just so curious. You would think. Especially if the bullet was from a different gun. Yeah, can't they see that? Why are they not investigating that? OK, well, I don't know. I know it was a long time ago. Yeah. I mean, are they going to punish his great, great, great grandchild? I know there's something to be done. But it's.
00:48:52
Speaker
Unsolved mysteries are like, you just want to figure them out. Yeah. And the idea of like two potentially pregnant women committing suicide in a hotel is like horrifying. It's horrifying once it's like double horror. I mean, it's obviously double horrifying, but it's like, I'm like, that's like a concept for a horror movie. Like something about that. I think hotels are just like, honestly, very scary when you think about it.
00:49:20
Speaker
Yeah, they can be so anonymous. But anyway, that's it this week. Thanks for listening. I know this was a wild one. You know, I'm going to have some sweet, sweet nightmares. Yes, me too. Me too. We hope you do too. Bye. Bye.