The hotel from Hell

I should have known what the day would bring when I discovered the hotel we had chosen because it was close to Dealey Plaza in Dallas for a two-day vacation was haunted.

And it was on Elm Street, or at least a block from it.

Nightmare on Houston Street would have been the appropriate designation.

Let’s see. 

Renovation is going on, everywhere, in the 125-year-old hotel. A fan in the lobby was a give away that things might not be uh, wonderful. We got to the room, and there were two beds, facing other. A coffee maker that produces one small cup at a time was on the small table in the middle of the room, which is a good thing because there was only one cup in the room. In my daughter’s room one floor below us, there was no cup, which is a good thing because one of the two window air conditioners wasn’t working so drinking hot liquid wasn’t the answer.

Then ….

Oh, then…

I read this: 

“At least three ghosts (a woman, a murder victim, and a gambler) are believed to haunt the Hotel Lawrence. The large number of odd occurrences reported through the years, however, would seem to indicate the presence of several. Four deaths due to accident or violence are said to have occurred on the premises, and some or all of these unfortunate individuals may be the spirits whose forms or actions have been witnessed. The common denominator in all of these deaths has been the tenth floor.

“A man alleged to have been a congressman is said to have resided on the tenth floor before his death by suicide at the hotel.  Stories also tell of a man named Jack "Smiley" Jackson who was murdered in room number 1009 (some renditions of the tale say 807).  It is said that unless you ask politely or address him by name (for example,"Move over, Smiley!") he will not allow you to enter the room. A later murder happened in the same room, when the throat of a man named Brookshire was slit. In the 1940's a woman either jumped or fell from a window on the tenth floor.

“Laundry carts have been said to move "by themselves" in the hotel basement, where also doors seem to open and close unaided by mortal hands. Footsteps as though made by high-heel shoes are reportedly heard in the hotel lobby late at night. It is said that the staff often receives calls from rooms in which no guests are staying, and the cleaning staff has claimed that their cleaning materials go missing.  During the 1920's and '30's a gambling casino was housed within the hotel on the second floor. There the apparition of a dapper gentleman in clothing of that era is sometimes seen walking in the hallways. Cold spots, disembodied voices, and feelings of being watched have been frequently experienced by guests and staff. In rooms and hallways of the tenth floor patrons have seen shadows and heard crying.”

So, we came to Dallas because our son-in-law is a John F. Kennedy conspiracy, uh, enthusiast and only the Turner family could wind up in the Overlook Hotel from Stephen King’s book, The Shining.

I half expected to see a sheet floating down the hallway, if indeed there were sheets on the beds, as we checked into our room, 802, which is just down the hall from 807 and just two floors down the hotel elevator (whose numbers don’t light up when you punch them and has a hole in the floor) from 1009. And if I would have seen a couple of twins riding trikes down the hallway, I would have run out of there screaming and crying like, well, my 6-year-old grand daughter Emma (for those who saw the movie).

I will say that Carrie found a hand print on the wall of the elevator which sent her into panic, and my I-pad simply quit working and word suddenly disappeared from my Mac Pro and, and, and...
Course, we did spend the day at the historic place where JFK met his end, which is now a museum, which in itself feels just a bit on the macabre side itself. But actually after riding around Dallas on a trolley, I’ve decided Lee Harvey Oswald obviously wasn’t the shooter. Nobody on the planet could have planned the execution of the president in such a precise manner then done everything on the planet in the most stupid manner afterwards to get caught.

Obviously, Smiley Jack’s ghost did it.