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Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Make room for a ghost

By Mike Conley | The McDowell News

Published: October 14, 2009

CORONADO, Calif. – For more than 120 years, it has stood like a heavenly vision along the white sandy beach just a few miles from downtown San Diego. But for almost as long, both the famous and the not so famous who have stayed there tell tales of a tragedy which continues to haunt this beautiful resort.
The Hotel del Coronado is truly one of the world's finest luxury resort hotels. Opened in 1888, the historic hotel, located alongside the Pacific Ocean, has hosted many great figures from American history, the movies and sports. Its guest list includes such greats as Charles Lindbergh, Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Willie Mays, Magic Johnson and Muhammad Ali. Eleven presidents have also visited the hotel: Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The 1959 classic comedy "Some Like It Hot," which starred Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, was filmed at the scenic resort.
But it is one obscure tragic woman who stayed at the hotel and ended her life there more than 100 years ago that most people talk about today. She would be lost to history if it was not for the ghostly legend that continues to haunt the Hotel del Coronado.
On Nov. 24, 1892, Kate Morgan, a pretty woman in her mid-20s, checked into the hotel alone. It was Thanksgiving evening but the sad woman seemed to have very little to be thankful for. During her stay, hotel employees who interacted with her reported that she had appeared to be ill and very unhappy. She was reportedly waiting for someone to join her but no one arrived.
Five days after she checked in, the beautiful Kate was found dead on an outside staircase that led to the beach. She was dead with a gunshot wound to her head. The San Diego County coroner determined it was self-inflicted, according to the hotel's Web site.
Authorities searched her hotel room but found no personal belongings. She had registered under the name of Lottie A. Bernard from Detroit but the police suspected that was not her true name. They sent a sketch of her face and information about her death to newspapers and police stations around the country. Eventually, Lottie Bernard was identified as Kate Morgan of Iowa and the wife of Tom Morgan. Reportedly, her husband was a gambler who made his living gambling on the railroad.
After the inquest, an eyewitness came forward to say that he had seen Kate arguing with a man on a train en route to San Diego. That man on the train might have been Tom Morgan. The witness said the man got off the train before reaching San Diego, and Kate continued on to the Hotel del Coronado by herself. It is assumed, she was waiting for her husband to join her. When he never showed up, she committed suicide.
Since that tragedy, both guests and staff at the Hotel del Coronado have reported strange activity that defies rational explanation. Witnesses have reported flickering lights, televisions that turn on and off by themselves, dramatic changes in room temperatures, weird scents, unexplained voices, the sound of footsteps, mysterious breezes which cause curtains to billow when windows are closed and objects that move about by themselves. Others have claimed to see the ghost of Kate Morgan herself.
One time a young couple was staying at the hotel for a romantic Valentine's Day getaway. Their visit was reportedly disrupted by a string of supernatural occurrences. At one point, a ghostly visitor ripped the covers off their bed in the middle of the night.
Of course, tourists checking out the place have taken numerous photographs of the Victorian era hotel and resort. Often their photos feature unexplained "globes" of light, sometimes with multiple patterns that arch across an entire image, according to the hotel's Web site.
Paranormal researchers have used infrared cameras, night vision glasses, radiation sensors, toxic-chemical indicators, a microwave imaging system and high frequency sound detectors to document the unexplained temperature fluctuations and other weird activity.
In October 2002, the hotel released a book titled "Beautiful Stranger – The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado." It is considered to be the most accurate and complete account of the ghostly legend. Of course, the hotel's gift shop prominently carries the book.
And it is that gift shop where a great deal of supernatural activity seems to occur now. The gift shop's employees report seeing glassware "flying" off the shelves and pictures falling off the walls for no reason.
Late last month, my wife and I visited San Diego. One day, we took a trip over to see the Hotel del Coronado. It was only a couple of days after I had toured the Whaley House, one of the most famous haunted houses in the nation. While walking through the hotel's gift shop, a woman there said she felt something strange. She experienced a sudden feeling of uneasiness that she could not explain. The woman only knew that she needed to leave the place because it upset her so.
Like my visit to the Whaley House, I did not encounter anything unusual at the Hotel del Coronado. But many believe the ghost of Kate Morgan is still there waiting for a husband who never came.

Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.