Key West has
been a vacation destination and home for people
of all ages for a long time. Who can resist the laid-back lifestyle, warm weather, fresh
seafood, rich history and simple relaxation? To make it even better, it's haunted! The island was discovered by Ponce de Leon in the early 1500's. Originally they named the island "Cayo
Hueso" which means "Isle of Bones". They named it such because the
island was totally covered in bones. The island was the site of a
previous massacre or it was some sort of Indian burial ground. It is
unknown for certain where these bones came from. Located 150 miles
south of Miami and just 90 miles north of Havana, Key West is
one of the best tourist destinations in the United States. The beaches, the snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, sailing,of course the partying, and ghosts!
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| Beach Scene |
The clubs and bars that Key West is famous for are not the only nightly attractions or entertainment. There's a lot more than just partying going on in Key West, especially at night. There's a parallel spirit world lurking in the buildings, walking the streets, time does not touch them, they do not age, and most of them can't be seen. But when they want you to see them, watch out! Upon
first look, Key West appears to be the perfect little
paradise, but looks can be deceiving as
every little town has its own little secrets. Key West is no different. This little town is a mere 2 mile by 4 miles,
with a past that is rich with tales of island pirate lore, voodoo
curses, black magic rituals. It even comes complete with its own
notorious hauntings. Key West residents accept, and even, embrace their supernatural entities like any other resident
on the island. It's just part of their everyday lives in a way. You can take a "ghost tour" and learn about these
spirits and hopefully experience their
ghostly presence first hand!
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| Ghost Tour bus |
Some say Key West is one of the most haunted locations in the United States, which makes it perfect for my list of the most haunted places in the United States that I'd love to visit. Visitors can go on nightly tours looking for ghosts throughout historic
Old Town. Local tour companies will guide visitors around after dark
when the restless spirits from beyond begin to awaken, all in search of
orbs, apparitions, and ghostly sightings near the haunted hotels,
19th-century Victorian mansions, and cemeteries. You will hear stories
of famous writers, pirates, rum-runners, and refugees, and as Florida's
second oldest city, the ghost stories in Key West are endless, creepy, and often frightening. Key West's
original ghost tour, founded in 1996 by "Ghosts of Key West" author
David Sloan. Featured on the Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, The
Tonight Show and MTV's Real World. Locally owned and operated. Come
see why the original is always the best!
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| Captain Tony's Saloon |
As water trade increased so did the
population and eventually Key West was settled. The site of Key West's
first bar was established on top of part of these burial grounds. Captain Tony’s Saloon was Florida’s
first bar. The bar has been patronized through the years by many well-known
artists, writers and celebrities. In fact, an interesting feature of the
bar is that when a celebrity visits, they add a barstool with that patron's name. There are barstools painted with the names of famous people such as Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Buffet, John F. Kennedy and Harry Truman, for example. Before the building became the first bar, it was the
first morgue on Key West. The mortician dearly attached to his daughter,
made her burial place inside the building. As the trade increased, so
did the pirating. The hanging tree where pirates and murderers where hanged was conveniently
located just outside of the morgue. This tree, from which 75 people were
hanged, now grows through the center of the building. Sixteen skeletons were found when they were laying a new
foundation. There is still the tombstone in the pool room where the
coroner buried his daughter.
There was a lady in the latter half of the 19th century, who brutally murdered her husband and two sons. Then she chopped their bodies into pieces and put the bloody chunks out in the backyard for the animals to dispose of. A neighbor saw the carnage and found the exhausted murderess inside her home wearing a blue dress covered in blood. A crowd turned lynch mob and dragged her to the hanging tree for instant justice. The legendary "Lady in Blue" is Captain Tony's best-known haunting. People will see a bluish blur passing through the room. Some have photographed her. She isn't alone though. There is also a story of a woman who brought her young child into the saloon, where she caught her husband drinking and womanizing. In a rage, she snapped, and killed her child in the bathroom. Then she carried out the body under a blanket. People have had a lot of supernatural occurrences in the bathroom, especially the 1st stall, where they think she murdered her child and in the saloon itself of course. I, of course heard this and wondered why she killed her child instead of her husband? The child didn't do anything. There have been voices heard, people have claimed to be touched by something that isn't there, and have feeling of being watched, and doors opening by themselves.
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| Ectoplasm in picture at Tony's |
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| The Hanging Tree in the middle of Bar |
The East Martello Museum is located at the old East Martello
Fort. The Museum was constructed as a fort to represent the
Martello Watchtowers in Italy. The walls of this fort are 8 foot thick,
and built with granite. It was designed back in the Civil War Era. It's
now home to Key West artifacts from past history, and also has military
memorabilia. This museum holds all sorts of artifacts and historical
records of Florida Keys history. The eeriest of displays is
Robert the Doll, dubbed as “the original Chucky.” Robert the
Doll was given to artist Robert “Gene” Otto in 1904 by a Bahamian servant who, according to legend, was skilled in black magic and voodoo and was displeased with the family. Soon afterward, it
became clear that there was something eerie about the doll. Eugene's
parents said they often heard him talking to the doll and that the doll
appeared to be talking back. Although at first they assumed that Eugene
was simply answering himself in a changed voice, they later believed
that the doll was actually speaking. Neighbors claimed to see the doll moving from window to window when
the family was out. The Otto family swore that sometimes the doll would
emit a terrifying giggle and that they caught glimpses of it running
from room to room. In the night Eugene would scream, and when his
parents ran to the room, they would find furniture knocked over and
Eugene in bed, looking incredibly scared, telling them that "Robert did
it!". In addition, guests swore that they saw Robert's expression change
before their eyes. Gene gave the life-sized doll his
first name, and blamed it for his bad behavior and anything that
went wrong. That really goes beyond the basic,not taking blame for anything" problem that a lot of people have. He blamed a doll for everything? Really? Maybe he was right though. Maybe the servant had cursed it as revenge for poor treatment. After numerous occurrences like these, Robert the doll was banished
to the turret room in the Victorian-style mansion. It seemed to take them a while to finally put it in attic, it seems. I would have just put it in the garbage. Children passing
by on their way to school would notice Robert in one window in
the morning and having moved to another window in the afternoon---
yet he hadn't been moved by any human who'd claim it.
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| Robert the Doll's original home |
Gene had been an ill-tempered person all of his
life, and Robert the Doll is said to be a reflection of him. In later
years, Gene took a wife, Anne. Gene was an artist, and locally
successful. They had an average marriage, oddly punctuated
by suddenly volatile behavior from Gene. As always, after each
outburst was over, Gene would say, "Robert did it." Even as an adult he continued to blame his behavior on the doll. Perhaps the doll could have somehow been possessed somehow, and i'll even go as far as to say that perhaps the doll somehow made weird things happen, he didn't make Gene be an angry jerk in general. Gene had a fiery temper, of which his wife took the brunt of. Upon Gene's death, Anne left Key West. She left Robert the dall in
his turret room and rented out the house. A strict provision
in the rental agreement stated that Robert must stay in his room
and it was strictly adhered to until Anne passed away in 1976,
even though the residents actually put Robert in a trunk, then
left the trunk in the turret room. Today, Robert resides at Fort East Martello Museum.
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| Robert in his display cube, very intimidating... |
When Robert was donated
to the museum in 1994, he came with his own hand-crafted Robert-sized
chair and a stuffed lion, Leo. (Leo is the name given the lion
by Key West Art and Historical Society staff--- his "real"
name isn't known nor is it known when the doll and the lion hooked
up.) Supposedly, Robert
the Doll is possessed, like dolls aren't already creepy enough. He often prevents his photo from being
taken, moves his toy lion from one knee to the other, and even
taps on his display case. The saying goes ... "when you visit Robert you are not allowed to take
photos of him, unless you get his permission. Those that do not comply
by his wishes, will have misfortune come to them. " First of all, how do you know if he gave you permission? I hate to state the obvious, but he he's a doll. That would feel weird. "Excuse me Mr. Doll, could I please have the honor of taking your creepy picture?" So go visit and see the "original Chucky" for yourself, and try to take a picture. Good luck, and don't forget to say "Please?"
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| Robert the Doll |
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| East Martello Museum |
The Key West Hard Rock Café is located in a sizable house on
Duval Street, the Key West Hard Rock Café is home to Robert
Curry. The house was built by William Curry, Florida’s first
millionaire, as a wedding gift for his son, Robert. Robert was
very ill throughout his life, plagued by a variety of
ailments and illnesses, yet found himself in control of the
Curry family fortune. Since he wasn’t a very good businessman
and likely had a lot of medical expenses, due to his poor health, the money rapidly faded away.
Distraught and depressed, Robert committed suicide in the second
floor bathroom. The Curry House is now the Hard Rock Café, but
Robert doesn’t seem to know the difference. Guests and
employees have reported seeing a dark-haired man walking the
premises, then disappearing into thin air. This Hard Rock Café
is supposedly the only haunted one in the World! It's already a good place to visit on a vacation, but in Key
West, the resident ghost gives you even more reason to have a
meal there!
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| Hard Rock Cafe |
The story about the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home is the true story of
German immigrant Georg Karl Tanzler (AKA Count Carl von Cosel)
and Elena Milagro Hoyos Mesa, isn’t exactly a ghost story and might not have anything to do with a haunting. But, it might. Read on, and
you will be freaked out beyond your wildest imagination.
Self-proclaimed Count von Cosel was an x-ray technician in Key
West. He was 54 when he fell madly in love with Elena, a 22 year
old patient dying of tuberculosis. There obviously wasn't a future there for them due to her imminent death. Regardless, he begged Elena to marry him
but, a devout Catholic whose husband left her, she declined. Sadly, Elena died in late 1931 and was placed in a mausoleum
Cosel had built for her in Key West Cemetery. About a year and a
half later, the still distraught Count, went off the deep end and took Elena from her resting place
and brought her to a new one: his bedroom. Cosel began to
“reconstruct” Elena’s body out of wax, plaster of Paris
and silk. Tanzler attached the corpse's bones together with wire and coat
hangers, and fitted the face with glass eyes. As the skin of the corpse
decomposed, Tanzler replaced it with silk cloth soaked in wax and plaster of Paris. As the hair fell out of the decomposing scalp, Tanzler fashioned a wig
from Hoyos's hair that had been collected by her mother and given to
Tanzler not long after her burial. Tanzler filled the corpse's abdominal and chest cavity with rags to keep the original form, dressed Hoyos's
remains in stockings, jewelry, and gloves, and kept the body in his bed.
Tanzler also used extensive amounts of perfume, disinfectants, and
preserving agents, to mask the odor and slow the effects of Elena's decomposition. In October, 1940, Elena's sister Florinda heard rumors of Tanzler
sleeping with the disinterred body of her sister, and confronted Tanzler
at his home, where Hoyos's body was eventually discovered. Florinda
notified the authorities, and Tanzler was arrested and detained. He was found mentally competent to stand trial on the charge of "wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization." After a preliminary hearing on October 9, 1940 at the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West, Tanzler was held to answer on the charge, but
the case was eventually dropped and he was released, as the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. Shortly after the corpse's discovery by authorities, Hoyos's body was examined by physicians and pathologists and put on public display at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home, where it was viewed by as many as 6,800 people. Hoyos's body was eventually returned to the Key west Cemetery here the remains were buried in an unmarked grave, in a secret location, to prevent further tampering. This story has been featured
on many different television shows and in countless books. Take
a stroll past the cemetery and funeral home. It’s free, super creepy and perhaps you'll see Costel's ghost, searching for Elena. Or perhaps it's Elena, furious with Costel for what he did.
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| Elena, on display |
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| An "Apparition" at cemetery. |
The Hemingway Home & Museum is home to Key West’s most famous apparition, the legendary
author Ernest Hemingway. The Hemingways heard of
Key West from Ernest’s friend John Dos Passos, and the two stopped at
the tiny Florida island on their way back from Paris. They soon
discovered that life in remote Key West was like living in a foreign
country while still perched on the southernmost tip of America.
Hemingway loved it. "It’s the best place I’ve ever been
anytime, anywhere, flowers, tamarind trees, guava trees, coconut
palms...Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks."
After renting an apartment and a house for a couple of years the
Hemingways bought a large house at 907 Whitehead Street with $12,500 of
help from Pauline’s wealthy Uncle Gus.
Pauline was pregnant at the
time. They called Key West their home from 1931 until
his suicide in 1961. His life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations.
The suicide probably wasn't too inspirational. Hopefully. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the
mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and
two non-fiction works. Three novels, four collections of short stories,
and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of these
are considered classics. Shortly after the publication of the "Old Man in the Sea"
in 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed
in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for
much of the rest of his life. I hope it was worth the "thrill." Apparently it wasn't, or maybe his health got to him. But Ernest Hemingway the author, the man who encouraged others to "think positively," killed himself in 1961. Ironic.
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| Hemingway |
Now, the Hemingway Estate is home to
approximately 60 cats, direct descendants of the 16 cats
Hemingway had when he lived here. The phrase is usually "that crazy old cat lady," but I suppose in this case it was the "crazy old cat man." This main house is no longer a
home, but a museum dedicated to Hemingway and the way he lived. He enjoyed adventure and travel. Hemingway penned "A Farewell to Arms" with the typewriter and chair on display
in the studio. You can go on a tour, and walk
around the house and garden. Have fun locating the 60 cats
(some with six toes, descendants of Hemingway's unique favorite)
roaming the property, the fountain constructed from a local bar's
urinal (classy), and the penny under glass near the saltwater pool, which
Hemingway reportedly tossed at his wife for "spending his last cent" on
its construction.
Everything has been preserved the way that Hemingway and his
family had it. So much so that Hemingway may think that he still
lives there! His ghost has been spotted all over the grounds,
accompanied by the sound of a typewriter when he is inside the
main house. The carriage house in the back has been turned into
the administrative offices for the museum as well as a
bookstore. This is a must see for literary buffs, as well as
ghost hunters, and cat lovers.
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| Could this be Hemingway's ghost? |
Now, we will visit the infamous haunted La Concha Inn of Key West, Florida. legendary Key West hotel has hosted guests like Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams and Harry S. Truman since opening in 1926. Room 160 of the Hotel is haunted by a man
who lost his life in the hotel after falling into an empty elevator
shaft. Guests of the hotel report having someone tap them on the
shoulder, but when they turn to see who tapped them, they find no one
there. Despite the fact that La Concha was approved as a Holiday Inn
franchise, this lurking spirit has proved to be quite an enduring nuisance to
guests. I guess that would kind of take out the "Holiday" part of Holiday Inn. Ghosts aren't very relaxing. While
some people may not like the idea of spending the night in a place that
is said to be so haunted, there are others who relish the chance to add
this additional experience to their Key West vacation. I think it would be the perfect place to stay the night.
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| La Concha Hotel |
Like
the island itself, La Concha had weathered many changes and had
undergone numerous face-lifts. The hotel had been restored, reopened,
and had recovered from its fall, but one New Year’s Eve a waiter who had
been cleaning up after a party had pulled his cart full of dishes down
the hallway on the 5th floor and was patiently waiting for the elevator.
As the elevator doors opened and the bell sounded, he backed into the
elevator pulling his cart in with him. Unfortunately the elevator had
malfunctioned and the car stopped at the floor above him. He stepped
into an empty elevator shaft and fell to his death. His spirit seems
most active on the fifth floor and to no surprise, around the elevator.
Many guests have reported hearing his scream followed by a deafening
crash, while others have seen the young man in the elevator perhaps
trying to complete his task. The lesson in this is, look where you are going.
This
seven story hotel has also been the scene of many suicides as some 13
people leaped to their death from the rooftop observation deck, and some
of these spirits may also remain. I guess that the roof was inspiring and depressing at the same time. A lawyer who leapt to his death in
1992 after being accused of embezzlement can still be seen pacing back
and forth contemplating. One gentleman who took the leap in 2006
reportedly downed a glass of Chardonnay before doing so. Since then,
patrons have reported their glasses of Chardonnay were sometimes
suddenly jerked from their hands by some unseen force. Could the spirit
of a former employee be trapped within these walls for all of eternity?
Is the La Concha home to several guests that never checked out.
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| Hallway of the haunted hotel |
Of course, there is always the lighter side of Key West. You can
drink, party, relax and basically do the ordinary things that
ordinary people do on their ordinary vacations. But, why settle
for something ordinary when you can do something so
extraordinary? Key West is the best of both worlds: our living
world and the supernatural world. Beings from each world just
can’t seem to get enough. I can't wait to visit, for a vacation of fun in the sun, beautiful beaches and "lively" ghost adventures! From awesome margaritas to ghosts, Key West has it all!
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| Yum! |
Haunted Houses by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"The spirit-world around this world of sense Floats like an atmosphere,
and everywhere Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense A
vital breath of more ethereal air."
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| Ectoplasm |
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| Tony's |
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| Orbs |
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