(CN) — A lit cigarette ignited table cloths in the basement of Tucson's Hotel Congress on Jan. 22, 1934, causing a fire that eventually engulfed the third floor. Guests ran into the street, many still in their underwear. Two men reportedly bribed firefighters to retrieve their luggage.
Later recognizing the men as members of John Dillinger's gang, the firefighters tipped off the police — resulting in a stakeout that nabbed the infamous bank robber and his men.
"In a space of five hours, without firing a single shot, the police of small-town Tucson had done what the combined forces of several states and the FBI had failed to accomplish," according to the hotel's website.
When captured, legend has it that Dillinger muttered, "Well, I'll be damned."
"Yeah, but is it haunted?" I asked our local bureau chief when she suggested the hotel.
She had just praised the 1920s-era decor of the rooms at the hotel — which includes old-fashioned radios and furniture — and the prime location on Congress Street, where she noted "pretty much everything" happens in Tucson.
She said that the rock club is great if you're planning on attending the show, but can be problematic for light sleepers or those who bed down early.
"But they give out earplugs at the front desk," she told me. I discovered they now leave them in the rooms.
The local bureau chief knows my affinity for supposedly haunted hotels after I spent a night in the haunted Hotel Andaluz while hiring in Albuquerque a few years back. I stayed in one of the "haunted" rooms but I didn't experience anything supernatural, though my perhaps too-logical brain concluded that the rattling pipes might seem like the work of ghosts to the more susceptible. I chalked it up to old plumbing. That hotel, Conrad Hilton's fourth, was built in 1939, after all.
"Not that I know of," she replied.
"Ah well, you can't have everything."
I Googled "Hotel Tucson" and the dropdown menu gave me multiple suggestions, the first of which was "Hotel Tucson Haunted?"
Rock and roll and ghosts (I didn't know about the Dillinger connection yet)? How could I resist?
"Our computers are running very slowly today. My apologies, sir," the voice on the other end of the line said.
"It's just those ghosts messing with ya," I replied.
"That's exactly right," he said.
According to the website of the Tucson Museum, the hotel boasts the spirit of a man murdered during a poker game and then hidden under a bed so the game could continue. He has been seen peering out of second-story windows ever since.
The more famous ghost is that of a barmaid from the 1940s who, after the breakup of her relationship with a high-ranking local official, died in a hail of gunfire after a late-night standoff with local authorities. Somehow her death was ruled a suicide.
Bullet holes supposedly remain in the closet of her room. Guests have reported hearing strange noises and seeing the apparition of the woman walking down the hallway on the second floor, and in the room's bathroom.
"OK, great," I said. "Room 242 is the haunted one, right?"
I found a seat in the back of the outdoor patio, where I nursed a Tucson-brewed Dragoon IPA before heading off to bed. I fell asleep to the bustle of a still-rocking downtown Tucson, though the band at the hotel had finished their set a while back.
Maricopa County Facts
Read more CNS coverage of Maricopa County news
Pima County Facts
Yavapai County Facts
Cochise County Facts
Read more CNS coverage of Pinal, Yavapai, Mohave, Yuma, Coconino and Cochise counties
