100 Murder Cases

The Creepy Murder In Room 1046

On January 22, 1935, a man calling himself Roland T. Owen checked into the Hotel President in Kansas City, Missouri. He showed up with no luggage, he was described as being 20 to 35 years old, had brown hair, a scar on his scalp visible above the ear, and a case of cauliflower ear. He was nicely dressed in a black coat and received the room key for room 1046. When the maid, Mary Soptic, said Owen allowed her to clean while he was in the room but asked not to lock the door behind her because his friend was about to visit the room very soon. Soptic said he kept the blinds tightly drawn and the lights off with the exception of one dim lamp. Other staff members who entered the room, mentioned that same detail. Soptic also mentioned that Owen "was either worried about something or afraid" and "he always wanted to kinda keep in the dark."

At 4 pm, Soptic returned with fresh towels to find Owen laying on the bed, completely dressed, in the dark, with the door unlocked. She also saw a note that read "Don, I will be back in fifteen minutes. Wait." The next day on January 3, Soptic came back to clean the room that morning. She noticed that the door had been locked from the outside and assumed Owen had locked it while he was leaving the room. However, Owen was sitting inside, again with the lights off, which meant that someone else had locked the door from outside the room. When Soptic was cleaning, Owen answered a telephone call and said "No Don, I don't want to eat. I am not hungry. I just had breakfast" repeating "No. I am not hungry." Soptic again arrived later that evening to bring fresh towels and heard two male voices coming from inside the room. When she knocked on the door, she heard a rough voice say "who is it?". When she explained that she had fresh towels, the voice replied "we don't need any."

During the night, a woman staying in room 1048 would report hearing loud voices both male and female cursing on the same floor. Though, there was a party going on that night in room 1055. The next morning, January 4, around 7 am, the hotel switchboard operator noticed that Owen's phone was off the hook for quite some time without being in use, so she sent the bellboy, Randolph Propst, to go see what was up. Despite the door having a "Do Not Disturb" sign, Propst knocked several times and heard a voice that said "come in. Turn on the lights." However, the door was locked and no one was getting up to let the bellboy in. So, after knocking repeatedly, Propst simply said "put the phone back on the hook", assuming that Owen was drunk. About an hour and a half later, at around 8:30 am, the phone was still off the hook and another bellboy, Harold Pike, let himself into the room with a passkey. Using only the light from the hall, Pike discovered Owen lying on the bed naked and assumedly drunk. He also noticed that the bedding was darkened around Owen. The phone stand was kicked down to the ground so he fixed it and put the phone back into the receiver.

From 10:30 to 10:45 am, the phone was once again off the receiver. They sent Propst to resolve the situation and when he opened the door, he saw a truly horrific scene. Propst told the police "When I entered the room, this man was within two feet of the door on his knees and elbows, holding his head in his hands. I saw blood on his head. I then turned the light on. I looked around and saw blood on the walls, on the bed, and in the bathroom. This frightened me and I immediately left the room and went downstairs." Owen had been bound with a cord around his neck, wrists, and ankles. His neck had bruising, suggesting someone had been attempting to strangle him. He had been stabbed more than once in the chest above the heart and one of the wounds had punctured his lung. Blows to his head had left him with a skull fracture on the right side. In addition to the blood Propst had seen, there was some additional spatter on the ceiling.

Dr. Flanders cut the cords from Owen's wrist and asked him who had done this to him. "Nobody", he answered. Asked, then, what had caused these injuries, Owen said he had fallen and hit his head on the bathtub. The doctor asked if he had been trying to kill himself. After saying no, Owen lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital. He was completely comatose by the time he arrived and died shortly after midnight on January 5.

Although Owen's true identity was revealed a year and a half later as Artemus Ogletree, no suspects have ever been identified. The Kansas City police continue to investigate.