Room 1046

Happy True Crime Thursday my Lovelies! I contemplated this week what kind of story I wanted to do and I decided on doing an unsolved case, and it's definitely a mystery even to this day. Hope you enjoy!

For this story we are going to go back to 1935, Kansas City, Missouri. It was January 2nd and a well dressed young man entered in the President Hotel and checked in under the name Roland T. Owen from Los Angeles. He looked like he had the body of a boxer he was a little heavyset, he had a cauliflower ear (an ear that's become thickened or deformed as a result of repeated blows) and he had a large white scar on the left side of his head.  He asked for an interior room that wouldn't have a window facing the street, even more curious he didn't have any luggage with him. The bellboy took him up to room 1046.

Mary Soptic a cleaning woman at the hotel walked in on a very nervous acting Roland later on that same day, she said he was either worried about something or afraid. His shades were drawn, a single lamp was the only light source. Shortly after the maid arrived he abruptly left, but asked her to leave the door unlocked as he was expecting a friend to come by. A few hours later when she stopped by to deliver him some fresh towels she found him lying on his bed, but he was fully dressed. A note laid on the desk, it read "Don, I will be back in fifteen minutes. Wait."

Room 1046

The next time that she saw him was mid-morning the following day. His door was locked from the outside so she had to use her hotel key that opened every door in the hotel. She again found him sitting in the dark, alone, but while she proceeded to clean the room she overheard him say "No, Don," "I don't want to eat, I am not hungry. I Just had breakfast. No. I am not hungry." Mary definitely found the situations strange, but it wasn't over yet. Later that day she was bringing a new set of towels up to the room, she knocked on the door when she heard 2 men talking and then she was answered by a rough sounding voice, that wasn't Roland's. When she offered the towels, the man told her they didn't need any, so she left.

Around 11 pm on January 3rd a worker for the Kansas City water department offered a ride to a young man walking along 13th street, about a mile and a half from the hotel. It was Roland. Robert Lane stated he was in pants and an undershirt, with no coat and had a deep scratch on his arm. Something about the way he cupped his hands made Robert think he was trying to hide the blood from a much deeper wound somewhere else on his body. Roland asked to be dropped off somewhere that he could get a taxi. When Robert asked him what happened to his arm, his reply was a mumbled "I'll kill that **** tomorrow." He hopped out when they reached the taxi stand and that was the last interaction he had with him.

As Thursday night turned into Friday morning a guest a few doors down from 1046 heard arguing from what sounded like both female and male voices. The operator noticed that the phone in 1046 had been off the hook for awhile, concerned they asked a bellboy to go check on it. When he knocked on the door a deeper voice told him to come in, but the door was locked. He told the guest this, but the man inside didn't acknowledge it, instead he said "turn on the lights." The bellboy knocked for several more minutes, but with no luck he shouted "put the phone back on the hook," and walked away. Come 8:30 am the phone was still off the hook, a bellboy was sent up. When he knocks there is no response, he lets himself in with his passkey and notices Roland, naked in the bed, dark stained sheets. He thinks it's just a passed out drunk so he puts the phone back on the hook and leaves. The phone was off the hook yet again, and by the time a 3rd bellboy went up to deal with the situation he would discover a man within 2 feet of the door on his knees and elbows, holding his bloody head in his hands.  He turned the light on, placed the phone on the hook and looked around the room. "I saw blood on the walls, on the bed and in the bathroom." Scared he quickly left the room and ran downstairs to tell his manager what he had just seen.

Detectives soon arrive and they discover that Roland was tied up around his neck, ankles and wrists, he had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest. One of the stab wounds had punctured his lung and his skull was fractured, he had repeated blows to the right side. He was alive, though drifting in and out of consciousness. A detective asked him who had been in the room with him, he answered "nobody." The detective then asks well how did you get hurt? "I fell against the bathtub." Did you try to commit suicide the detective asks, "No." He then slipped into a coma and died in the early morning hours of January 5th, 1935. Detectives stated that he had been stabbed 6-7 hours before they arrived on the scene, meaning he had already been stabbed when the bellboy came in the room the 1st time.

Who in the hell was this guy? And what kind of stuff was he into?

As the Kansas City PD tried to gather evidence it wasn't easy. Whoever assaulted Roland had stripped him and his hotel room bare. There were no towels, no shampoo, no clothing. All they could find was a necktie label, a hairpin, an unlit cigarette, a safety pin, a small unopened bottle of diluted sulfuric acid, and a broken water glass in the sink. Only prints found were that of a woman lifted from the telephone stand. Their bigger mystery was trying to figure out who Roland T. Owen was. Several people could identify him, but strangely they all knew him by different names. He had stayed in several hotels prior to staying at the President. He touched the lives of many people, yet he remained a mystery. Police and media put out many calls to help identify the true identity of the man, but no one could claim him as their own.  They were also puzzled as to who this "Don" person was as well as the woman that was heard and that left her prints behind, neither could be located.

Police announced that March that they would be burying their mystery man in a potter's field. Before the burial an anonymous male donor called up the funeral home to cover the expenses to have him buried at the Kansas City's Memorial Park Cemetery instead. The man went on to say that this Roland guy had jilted a woman that he knew and that the three of them met as the hotel about it. "Cheaters usually get what's coming to them," then he hung up. They received the cash and the only ones in attendance of the funeral were police detectives. An anonymous order was received and laid on his grave, it was 13 roses with a card that read "Love forever-Louise."

About a year later a woman name Ruby Ogletree was reading a magazine article about the mysterious man and his murder, it included a picture. She recognized him as her son Artemus Ogletree, he had been missing since April 1934 from Birmingham, Alabama. He was 17 at the time he went missing.  

Police now knew who the victim was, but were still left with a lot of questions that to this day they still don't have the answers to. Who was the man with the rough voice that told the maid to go away? Who was Don? Whose fingerprints were those? Who was Louise? Maybe we will never know. 

Hope you guys enjoyed this one and I will see you all next week! 



Resources:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/545298/love-forever-louise-mystery-room-no-1046

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/5h35o3/the_mystery_of_room_1046/