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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Johntcullen (talk | contribs) at 23:50, 28 August 2008 (I have had to respond to the deliberate and misleading information posted by Terry Girardot, a destructive, obsessive person bent on distorting the story at any cost. He has no theory of his own...). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Kate Morgan (1865-1892) is an Iowan who died under mysterious circumstances, and is thought by some to be a ghost at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. She was buried at nearby Mount Hope Cemetery in Division 5 Section 1.

Morgan (nee Farmer) was born in Hamburg, Iowa in 1865. At the age of 20, she married Tom Morgan, alleged to have been a gambler who worked on trains. According to the Hotel del Coronado's official book (see below) it is not clear whether this was true, or urban lore. The spectacular case of the 'Beautiful Stranger,' which became a national sensation in the Yellow press of 1892, is filled with tantalizing clues, baffling dead ends, and mysterious interweaving threads.

She was found dead on November 29, 1892, of what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. This was five days after checking into the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego. A San Francisco lawyer, the late Allan May, speculated in the 1980s that her death involved foul play. Evidence for the alleged foul play was a passing statement (or misstatement), during the coroner's inquest, that the bullet found in her head did not match that of her own gun.. Given that Mr. May claimed, among other things, to have had dinner with the ghost in her former room on a number of occasions, and conversed with her at length, there are those who will advise readers to approach his book with caution. Nevertheless, whatever the merits of his book, he did revive interest in the subject by causing a stir with his murder theory. Officials reviewing the case, however, reviewed his speculations and chose not to reopen the case. The official verdict remains suicide.

There have been many putative ghost sightings, and other potential paranormal events at Hotel del Coronado since then. The official Hotel del Coronado website mentions the ghost.

The hotel's Heritage Department has published an official book on this subject, written by the hotel's professional historian, titled The Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and The Hotel del Coronado . TIt avoids speculation in its research of historical documents available in local public libraries, historical societies, and university libraries as well as city hall and police files. The Heritage Department's book leans toward the official suicide verdict.

San Diego author John T. Cullen has published a new theory, in which he examines the facts presented in the Heritage Department's book, together with his own research. In his book Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado , Cullen conjectures that the reason for the entire affair was a blackmail plot against the hotel's owner, John Spreckels. The plot involved two women--Kate Morgan, described as a ruthless schemer and grifter who planned the entire affair; and Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Wyllie, a reportedly beautiful and gullible unmarried runaway from Detroit who had eloped with her lover, John G. Longfield, after their affair was found out and Wyllie was pregnant (a social death sentence for an unmarried woman in Victorian times). Longfield was married to another woman, and the father of several children. There likely was a second man involved, at least briefly. Although there is no smoking gun that proves the blackmail allegation, this book attempts to tie together all the various threads and clues that have been supposedly hidden in plain sight for generations to create a second theory. The body went through a series of identifications. One of the strong identifications made was that the body was that of Lizzie Wyllie. This i.d. was confirmed by Wyllie's mother in Detroit, but discarded by local authorities in favor of several other possible personas. Ultimately, disregarding the fact that the corpse and Wyllie both had two small birthmarks on the left cheek, the official story was changed on basis of evidence (pierced ears--Wyllie had them, but Morgan and the corpse reportedly did not) that the dead woman was Morgan. The author suggests reasons why John Spreckels' powerful security apparatus might have interfered in the investigation. The ill-fated plot could not have occurred at a worse moment, since Spreckels was at that moment in Washington, D.C., negotiating with President Benjamin Harrison and the United States Congress to save the Hawaiian monarchy. At the same time, Spreckels' father Claus Spreckels was doing last-minute shuttle diplomacy at the court of Queen Liliuokalani in Honolulu. At stake was the family's fortune in Hawaii sugar plantations. In the end, the author feels that Wyllie--betrayed and abandoned by everyone, a 'fallen Victorian angel'--killed herself out of remorse and despair. The final verdict on the mystery is not yet in, but this is a totally fresh take on a tantalizing puzzle that now spans three centuries. Meanwhile, her ghost is said to continue haunting the hotel, scaring both guests and employees.

In reference to the inaccuracies posted by a contributor below (and the correct information is documented carefully in the Hotel del Coronado's official book, Beautiful Stranger), Mrs. Wyllie did not identify her daughter from a description sent to police departments around the country. When she learned that the police were searching for a 'Lottie A. Bernard' who lay dead in a San Diego morgue, she feared that the dead girl was her daughter Lizzie. San Diego Police broadcast an official police sketch of the dead woman, which was published in papers around the country, so Mrs. Wyllie certainly saw the picture. She then had her daughter May (Lizzie's sister) contact the Coroner in San Diego, with whom the Wyllies exchanged telegrams in further detail. It was in this correspondence that the Coroner brought up the controversy of pierced ears, which was part of the reason the identification shifted away from Lizzie. All this is documented in the Hotel's official book, and extensively discussed in Cullen's book. The contributor is entirely wrong about the identification of the photos (plural) found in Kate Morgan's trunk. Artifacts belonging to both Kate Morgan and Lizzie Wyllie were found in the trunk. The San Diego Police chief did not confirm the identity. Hotel employees who had seen the beautiful woman (Lizzie) stated multiple times that the woman in the photo, indentified as Kate Morgan, was not the same as the 'beautiful stranger' they had seen--but everything about Lizzie (her beauty, her stylish clothing, her mannered air) points to Lizzie as being the Beautiful Stranger. The contributor, whose primary cause is to disentangle his ancestor Tom Morgan from the story, and who does not have an explanation of the Kate Morgan mystery beyond that, is correct in suggesting interested parties should form their own opinion. They should form their opinion, however, on correct information rather than the continuing string of inaccuracies that has bedeviled this story for over a century. The contributor below has done everyone a disservice, including himself.

References

1. Alan M. May. The Legend of Kate Morgan: The Search for the Ghost of the Hotel del Coronado. ISBN 1-122-26574-3
2. Official website, Hotel del Coronado, History ]
3. Official Heritage Dept. Book, The Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and The Hotel del Coronado ISBN 978-0916251734
4. Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, Second Edition (Nonfiction) by John T. Cullen ISBN 978-0743309509
5. Sample chapters of Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, Second Edition (Nonfiction) by John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, 2008

There is one other suggestion as to the identity of the ghost of the Hotel del Coronado that bears airing here. That belongs to Bonnie Vent, a medium in San Diego who claims to have spoken to the ghost, and whom she believes to be Lottie Bernard. This is the name shown on the Hotel's register. Like all other versions of the story mentioned herein, there is to date no factual evidence to prove or disprove her assertion.

Terry Girardot, a genealogist from Texas, has done extensive research on his maternal side of the family. Tom Morgan, Kate's husband, was the half-sister of his grandmother.

He acquired the photograph shown on this web page from Tom Morgan's granddaughter. Tom Morgan's daughter wrote the following note on the back of the photograph: "Kate Farmer Morgan - Dad's first wife who committed suicide @ Long Beach (sic) Calif. She was originally from Hamburg & had lived where there (sic) baby boy was born, who only lived a couple day (sic). Kate ran away with another man."

A subsequent note read: "Thomas Edwin Morgan 1st married a Kate Farmer at Hamburg Iowa and they had 1 child - a boy who only lived a day or so and is buried back of church in lot with my parents . Kate ran away with a step-son of Emily Hope Allen Morgan who was my father's step-mother ... Thos. Edwin Morgan rec'd a telegram about a year after Kate left with Mr. Allen from authorities at Long Beach (sic) Calif. saying identification showed woman who committed suicide had committed suicide on beach there & what should they do with body - seems said Mr. Allen had deserted her - Dad wired back she left of her own accord & he wasn't claiming the body. Kate's folks lived at Hamburg but I don't think body was ever ret'd to Hamburg."

The man Kate ran away with was Albert Allen. George Allen, to whom the Hotel del Coronado sent a telegram on behalf of Kate (requesting funds to pay her bill) was his brother. George lived on a farm immediately adjacent to Tom Morgan's father, Marsena Morgan, who married Albert and George's step-mother, Emily Dennison Allen, in Illinois in 1871, twenty-one years prior to the death of Kate Morgan.

It is true Lizzie Wyllie's mother made an initial identification of the body, but it was based solely on a written description sent to police departments around the country. According to one newspaper article, she based her identification "on two small moles on the left cheek." The mortician sent her a detailed description of the body, noting the ears of the dead girl had never been pierced (as opposed to Lizzie's) along with a photograph of the deceased. Mrs. Wyllie made no further claim to the body and she was not heard from again. And, the man Lizzie supposedly ran away with wrote to Mrs. Wyllie saying he had received a letter from Lizzie - she was in Toronto and was not coming home.

Much has been made of a supposedly anonymous letter received by authorities that supposedly first identified the corpse as Kate Morgan. According to Alan May, this was written and mailed by Tom Morgan to throw authorities off the track. In fact, it was written and signed by A.D. Swarts, a former resident of Fremont County, Iowa. He wrote after she had been identified in the newspapers, and only to alert authorities of the names of her relatives in Iowa who might arrange for the disposal of her remains. The existence and location of his farm has been verified on an official plat plan of the county.

A photograph of Kate (the same as above?) was found in the trunk she left behind at the residence of her employer in Los Angeles. When shown to the San Diego Chief of Police, he made a positive identification, saying that "beyond a doubt" it was the corpse found on the beach.

Tom Morgan was NOT a gambler as has been so widely reported. He was a member of the International Order of Odd Fellows, a Christian organization that would have expelled him if he were a gambler . Several documents associated with the probate of his father's will show him to be in Fremont County, Iowa at the time he and Kate were allegedly riding the rails fleecing other card players at the poker table. For example, in 1888 Tom bought a milk cow from the estate for $25.88. At the time of Kate's death in 1892, he was living in Burchard, Nebraska. While in Burchard, he worked as a rural mail carrier and became the Postmaster of the town. In the years prior to his death in 1936, he was a Deputy Sheriff of Harlan County, Nebraska. The reason why Tom bears this misrepresentation of his occupation is because Kate told her employers she was married to a gambler. This, of course, was after she had deserted her husband and ran off with Albert Allen.

All of the information published above is documented in census, probate and family records. Those interested in the true story of Kate Morgan may consider it and arrive at their own conclusion as to which theory of the ghost's identity is the most credible.

• 1865 births
• 1892 deaths
• People from Iowa
• Ghosts