Report : Ghost Solves Murder

The Chicago Tribune reported this story as the strangest ghost story ever told . . .

This story was published in the Tribune in August of 1942.

Nurses making home visits to an elderly female patient newly released from hospital in Denver, Colorado called the police in a panic.

They felt their patient, a Mrs. Peters' home was haunted. Concerns about strange lights seen at the top of the house were reported along with reports that they had heard eerie sounds coming from this same area.

What the police found when they arrived was not a ghost but a man.

This man, Theodore E. Coneys had hidden in the home for 9 months. He had first moved in to his old friend’s home, undetected in September of 1941. He observed Mr. Peters, 73 leave the home to visit his wife in hospital.

He discovered the door was left unlocked and entered. He wandered around the house looking for valuables. He then managed to squeeze his way into an 8X15" opening in the garret floor.

He left the space where he hid after four days in search of food. On one of these trips to find food, Mr. Peters caught him robbing the icebox.

Coneys proceeded to bludgeon Mr. Peters to death.

He was able to remain safely hidden even while the police where in the home investigating this murder. He stayed in the home after Mrs. Peters was brought home from the hospital.

He managed to remain hidden despite the fact a continuous string of day and night nurses visited the home in order to care for Mrs. Peters.

Pictured: Coney in cell, Peter's home,
small space where he hid.
Click to enlarge

The police at first did not discover Coneys' hiding place because the trap door was so small they felt no one could fit through it. When they found Coneys he was shaking from hunger, his hair was long and his clothes were in rags.

He confessed to the police he had killed Mr. Peters.

Coneys was a former businessman who began an advertising firm in Denver in 1910. He had visited the Peters home as a frequent guest. His business collapsed in 1917.

He then bummed around the country for many years. Eventually, he returned to Denver. Instead of contacting his old friend for help he sneaked into his home in 1941 and decided to stay for the winter.

The space he hid in was right under the peak of the roof. It was only four feet wide. In the months that followed he equipped this space with a radio, electric hot plate and food all stolen from the Peters.

Coneys weighted only 75 pounds when the police discovered him. He was tried and convicted of Mr. Peters murder and spent the rest of his life in prison.

Denver: Haunted Brown Palace

In 1880 Henry Cordes Brown walked into what was considered one of Denver, Colorado’s premier hotels, the Winsor. To Brown's surprise, he was not allowed to stay because he was dressed in cowboy attire. 

Right then and there Brown decided to build his own hotel. 

Twenty years before, he and his family had left their home in Ohio—planning to strike it rich in California. When they traveled through Denver, Brown’s wife however announced that she liked the area and wanted to stay.

The Browns homesteaded 16t0 acres of land that is now apart of Denver’s Capitol Hill area. Brown, a shrewd
businessman, developed his property into a thriving palatial Brownstone neighborhood in the growing city. 

He made a fortune from this real estate venture, but in 1877 during the economic crisis, he lost most of it. But being an enterprising man, he was able to recover his fortune quickly. 

On the day he walked into the Winsor Hotel he was worth five million dollars—he was the richest man in Colorado.

Brown became determined to outdo the Winsor. He commissioned an architect, Frank E. Edbrooke to design his new hotel. 

The Brown Palace was completed in 1892 at the cost of 1.8 million dollars—a considerable sum for the time. His new hotel was placed on a triangular lot, its exterior walls made of Colorado granite and Arizona sandstone. 

Brown had James Whitehouse a sculptor, hand-carve native Rocky Mountain animals. These stone medallions can be seen between the windows on the seventh floor.

The interior of the Brown Palace was the first hotel to have an atrium lobby. Its gridiron balconies raise eight floors above the ground. Presiding over this view is a stain-glass ceiling. 

The lobby is adorned with imported onyx and marble. The eighth-floor grand ballroom is graced with furnishings worth over $40,000. This hotel has been continuously open for over a century—even during renovations.

In its history the Brown Palace has seen numerous celebrities, presidents, and rocks stars--including the Beatles who stayed at the hotel in 1964. 

The Palace was raided during Prohibition and at one time had a tunnel that led across the street to a building that housed a gambling den and brothel. The lobby even has hosted champion prize bulls. 

The Palace also has its share of ghosts.

One ghost that haunts the hotel is that of a female socialite who lived in Room 904 from 1940 till 1955. The hotel’s upper floors once were used as long-term apartments. 

It is stated that this ghost became active only after the management began to give tours. On these tours, visitors were regaled with her tragic tale of lost love and heartbreak. This evidently stirred her up. 

The hotel lobby switchboard started to get calls from Room 904—only static was heard on the other end. What was even more odd about this was that Room 904 was undergoing renovations at this time, so the electricity and phone lines in the room were disconnected. 

Once the hotel’s tour stopped telling her story the phone calls ceased.

The Palace at one time hosted music in the San Marcos Room where big bands entertained guests. Today this room has been converted into a dining room. Late one night after this room closed, an employee heard strange sounds coming from inside.

When he went to investigate he was shocked to see a string quartet dressed in formal wear tuning their instruments. He told the group, which appeared normal that they were not allowed in the room. 

One member reassured him not to worry—for they lived in the hotel. Shocked, this young man then saw these musicians just vanish.

One service the hotel provides is an office where guests can buy plane tickets, print boarding passes, etc. 

In the past, this same office was used for train tickets. On more than one occasion, witnesses have seen a man dressed in an old-fashioned train conductors uniform in this area. A witness saw this ghost turn and walk through an office wall.

Other ghosts spotted at the Palace include: a uniformed waiter that has been seen on a service elevator, laughing children who are heard and seen running through the hotel’s halls and curiously a baby is heard crying in the hotel’s boiler room.

In the early 1980s, I stayed at the Brown Palace. One morning as my stepmother and I approached an elevator, the doors began to close. Out of nowhere, a chivalrous cowboy visiting from Wyoming stopped the doors with his boot, doffed his cowboy hat and forcefully held the doors open for us. 

At the time I thought this was nice but unnecessary but now knowing the hotel’s history, I believe Henry Brown would have liked this.