The ghost of the Hotel del Coronado

The Hotel del Coronado is a resort hotel near San Diego, California, that is said to be haunted by a woman who died there in November 1893.

The Coronado ghost 

The woman was Kate Morgan, although there are different stories to account for how she met her end. One is that she checked into the hotel alone, under a false name, after she and her husband, named Tom, had quarrelled during their journey there by train. She had told him that she was pregnant, which was not welcome news to him. He got off the train early and said that he would join her later.

After two days alone, staying in Room 3312, she went to San Diego where she bought a gun; she was found dead the following day on the north steps of the hotel, apparently by suicide.

However, there was something very strange about her death, which was that the gun she had bought, and which was in her hand with one chamber empty, was not of the same calibre as the bullet that killed her.

Another mystery concerned the maid who disappeared the day after the funeral and was never seen again. So did Kate’s husband Tom turn up at the hotel and kill both Kate and the maid, who had seen enough to implicate him in the murder?

Another account has Kate committing suicide because she found her husband with another woman. In this version the married couple had arrived together and booked into Room 3502. He went down to the gaming room on his own and Kate later decided that this would be a good time to surprise him with the news of her pregnancy. He had not thought that he would be disturbed by Kate turning up, hence the discovery of his flirting so shocked Kate that she killed herself.

As with many such stories there are elements that don’t really hold water, but the hotel seems to have done all it can to boost the stories for what they are worth. For one thing, there are two rooms, not one, that guests can sleep in that might produce odd sensations – and, naturally enough, they duly oblige with stories of mysterious presences, cold gusts and subdued whispers. Then there are the two possible scenes of the drama, namely the hotel steps and the gaming room, either of which are worthy of attention from the ghost-hunting perspective.

In addition to the sensations mentioned above, guests have reported seeing the ghost of Kate Morgan moving through corridors or standing by windows.

Many haunted houses increase their attractiveness by being the scene of hauntings by numerous ghosts. The Hotel del Coronado has achieved this trick by splitting their one ghost into two, which sounds like an excellent marketing ploy!

© John Welford