January 16th-19th 2009

Agent Cobra and Agent Jackie

Location: Tucson, Arizona
(Click on any image to see full size)

It’s been a while since Agent Jackie and I have done a good ghost investigation. At the beginning of the year, I was thinking of what we should do for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I figured what better way to escape the cold (actually it’s been unusually warm in Flagstaff this winter) than to go down to Tucson, Arizona. The area needs some serious exploring in the normal and the Paranormal. After reading through the Sleeping with Ghosts book by Debe Branning (Director of the MVD Ghostchasers), I decided on the Hotel Congress. The book mentions that the most haunted room, Room 242, was the site of a notorious suicide many years ago. The book claims that, “Many guests hear disembodied voices and crying. Some have reported the sensation of being touched by an invisible hand while in there.” I was excited and kind of nervous when I called the hotel for reservations and she said Room 242 was available and I said I’ll take it for 3 nights.

The picture below shows Room 242 at the top of the main stairwell. Right downstairs from 242 is part of the bar and a lounge area. Outside is the patio where people smoke and drink till 2:00 in the morning.

The Southwest Ghost Hunters Association has also done some investigating at the Hotel Congress and they state a little more about what happened in Room 242. Here is a quote from their website http://www.sgha.net/az/tucson/congress.html. “One of the rooms in the hotel is haunted by a man who had a heart attack and died. He has been seen looking out of the window. Room 242 is known as the Suicide Room, a name given to it a few years ago, when a troubled woman shot herself in the bathroom after a standoff with the police and a SWAT team. People staying in this room hear strange noises that are quite creepy and they often have nightmares. The ghost of this woman has also been seen in the bathroom and in the hallway outside of her room.”

The picture below is the bathroom in which the girl shot herself in the head. From the position of the bullet hole, it looks like she was crouched between the sink and the toilet, shooting at an upward angle from left to right.

When we checked in to the hotel and went to our room, the first thing I looked for was the bullet hole in the closet ceiling. It is still there as the picture below shows.

There are also reports of people seeing a man in a seersucker suit walking between rooms right through the door.

It must be noted that there was a distinct temperature difference between the bathroom and the room itself. Walking in the bathroom, it felt cool while the room was hot. After some quick investigating, it was noted that the radiator was on at full blast and the bathroom door had been closed. The bathroom has a vent in the ceiling where cooler air comes through. This could be the reason people report cold areas in the bathroom and the room. The picture below shows what the inside of the room looks like. The woman in the mirror is not the ghost but Agent Jackie.

The hotel is full of history, and was built in 1919 during the height of train travel. You can tell why it was built where it was due to the noisy trains passing by all the time in close proximity to the hotel. The hotel was also the site of an infamous fire in 1934 that led to the arrest of the gangster, John Dillinger and some of his gang. I wonder if Michael Mann will include this in his Public Enemies movie coming out this year. The fire destroyed the third floor that was never rebuilt after. I walked up the flight to the third floor and looked through the crack of the door. I could pretty much see the Tucson skyline at night and no ghosts.

I continued walking the halls taking pictures with my digital camera. It must be noted that we came on the weekend before Dillinger Days and there was Whiskey tasting going on. Needless to say, it was noisy and my digital audio recorder didn’t pick up much but the noise from downstairs. The same goes for recording audio in the room. It was pretty loud from people out on the patio and downstairs. If you do sleep in this room, bring earplugs and be prepared to smell smoke. Below are pictures of the hallways.

The next morning, we went downstairs and did a short investigation. We walked into the main bar room located downstairs on the southeast corner of the building nothing special happened although it seems like a good hangout and place to get drunk. The last night we stayed at the Hotel Congress, I left the recorder on all night in Room 242 to see what I could find. Below is the findings report.

Findings:

We really didn’t experience any of the bad dreams, disembodied voices, touchings by invisible hands (god that’s bad English but it sounds funny), or any visual contacts. After reviewing all the pictures, I didn’t see any of the usual orbs (dust particles) that usually show up. It did feel kind of creepy at first in the room but after a while, we got used to it.

My thoughts about the temperature differences are expressed above. I kind of think that people who check into this room knowing what happened tend to freak themselves out. That’s not to say that the place is haunted, we just didn’t experience anything that would lead us to believe it is. Ghosts are strange and finicky things that don’t follow schedules, unless they are residual. If there are ghosts at the hotel and/or in Room 242, they could have been silent for some reason. Maybe they are tired of Stuboy investigators showing up with their cameras and audio recorders. Anyway, like TAPS would report, I don’t think the place is haunted for now. If I were to go back, I don’t think I would stay in 242 unless it was during a quiet weekend.

AUDIO RESULTS - Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)

The audio recordings turned up little except the following. This audio file happened during the early morning of January 19th 2009.

This audio file doesn’t prove that the place is haunted.

Possible Voice (mp3 format) - Fellow Invetigator Justin (who was not present at this investigation) analyzed this clip and found it could possibly be a patron in the bar but it sounds too close to be that. It could very well be residual energy left over from the suicide. The ghost (or whatever is left) of the woman is crying out. The clip plays normal once, and with noise reduction twice.

In summary, the trip to Tucson was fun even though the radiator was loud and people talking kept us up some of the nights. It was a fun experience but I didn’t feel like this place was haunted. Once again though, future investigation may prove me wrong. I have not developed the 35mm film with pictures in the hotel yet. If I find anything in those, I will update this report. Hea.

All EVPs and pictures above are property of the IMPS (Inter-Mountain Paranormal Society). Do not use without written permission from us. If you are interested in using our EVPs or images, please email marsam233ATyahoo.com. Replace AT with @ in your mail program.

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