A century ago Kate Morgan checked into the Hotel del Coronado and took her own life. Now, guests claim her spirit may never have left.
Wikimedia CommonsKate Morgan circa 1892.
The United States has no shortage of spooky hotels. From the Stanley Hotel in Colorado to the Driskill Hotel in Texas, many of these supposedly haunted spots have made their way into American pop culture. But one of the most haunted hotels is the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California, which is purportedly haunted by a ghost named Kate Morgan.
Morgan’s life was tragic from beginning to end. She was orphaned at a young age, lost her baby just days after he was born, and had a series of disappointing relationships. She checked into the Hotel del Coronado in 1892 under an alias, and seemingly died by suicide just a few days later. Her body was found on an exterior staircase of the hotel leading down to the beach, and Morgan has purportedly haunted the hotel ever since.
This is the eerie story of Kate Morgan, from how she allegedly haunts the Hotel del Coronado to why some believe that she was actually murdered.
A Woman Of Many Names
Little is known about Kate Morgan’s early life, aside from the fact that she encountered tragedy at a young age. Morgan was born in Hamburg, Iowa, in 1864 as Katie K. Farmer, and lost her mother when she was just two years old. Morgan was subsequently raised by her maternal grandfather.
In 1885, Morgan met and married a man named Thomas Edwin Morgan. However, the marriage was marred by tragedy as well. Morgan gave birth to a son, but the baby survived for just two days.
Morgan then purportedly ran off with another man.
Public DomainAn article about Kate Morgan’s death from her hometown, which states that she had “fallen from the path of virtue.”
After this relationship ended, Kate Morgan seemingly made her way to Los Angeles. Christine Donovan, the Hotel del Coronado’s historian and the author of a book about Kate Morgan entitled Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado told the Los Angeles Times in 2003 that Morgan found work as a domestic servant.
However, Morgan lied to the families that she worked for about her identity. She said that her name was Katie Logan, and that she was from Nebraska — not Iowa. She also told her colleagues that her husband was a gambler, and that she was unhappy in her marriage.
Then, on the day before Thanksgiving 1892, Morgan told her employer that she needed to go to San Diego, but assured them that she would be back the next day to cook Thanksgiving dinner. She was spotted on the train arguing with a man — later identified as her husband, Thomas Edwin Morgan — who got off the train before she did.
Morgan continued on to San Diego, where she checked in at the Hotel del Coronado on Thanksgiving Day. She said that her name was Lottie Anderson Bernard, and claimed that she was from Detroit.
The hotel put her in Room 302 (today Room 3327). Kate Morgan paid $3.80 a day, including meals.
Kate Morgan’s Final Days At The Hotel Del Coronado
Wikimedia CommonsThe Hotel del Coronado circa 1890.
At first, Kate Morgan seemed to enjoy her stay at the Hotel del Coronado. Donovan told the Los Angeles Times that she was spotted horseback riding and enjoying some “whiskey cocktails.” But many who encountered Morgan noted that the young woman seemed melancholy.
“She said she was 24 years old, and spoke often of her physical condition, and was noticeably despondent, sometimes seeming to verge on melancholia,” the San Diego Union Tribune reported after Morgan’s death.
Indeed, Morgan told some people that she had “hopeless” stomach cancer. She told others she had heart disease. Morgan also claimed at one point that she had neuralgia, but that her brother was coming soon to treat her (Morgan had no brother). She seemed to despair about her loneliness, and at one point exclaimed: “Oh, no one comes to me any more!”
On the day before her death, Morgan went into town, where several shop owners noted her weak, slow gait. She bought a .44-caliber American Bulldog pistol, which she claimed was a Christmas present for a friend.
Wikimedia CommonsA composite sketch of the Hotel del Coronado suicide victim, Kate Morgan.
Then, on the evening of November 28, Kate Morgan ventured out onto a wooden staircase on the exterior of the hotel facing the beach. Witnesses spotted her there, wearing a black dress and a lace shawl.
The next morning, Nov. 29, 1892, the hotel’s electrician found her body.
“She was dead, and an American bull-dog revolver was lying within two inches of her outstretched right hand,” the San Diego Union Tribune wrote, “A ragged wound showed on the right temple, but the rain had washed away all stains of blood. Her body was soaking wet, stiff and cold.”
In the years that followed, questions swirled about Kate Morgan’s death. And it was not the last time that she was allegedly seen at the hotel.
The Ghost Of Kate Morgan At The Hotel Del Coronado
Los Angeles HeraldA clip from the Los Angeles Herald from Dec. 12, 1892.
How did Kate Morgan die? Even after her death, some doubted that she had died by suicide. According to Donovan, one of her relative’s from Iowa claimed that she’d left home with “quite a sum of money” and that “You can rest assured it was no case of suicide.”
In the 1980s, a San Francisco lawyer named Alan May found he agreed. After he allegedly spotted Morgan’s ghost at the hotel, May looked into her case. He found that the bullet from her gun should have shattered her skull, instead of lodging in her brain. He suspects that she was traveling with her husband, Thomas, who killed her when he found out she was pregnant. (It’s unknown if she was pregnant — there was no autopsy.) May also believes that Thomas stole Morgan’s money after her death.
But while there’s no strong evidence for May’s theory — Donovan believes that Kate Morgan died by suicide — he is not the only person who allegedly encountered Morgan’s ghost at the Hotel del Coronado.
Numerous paranormal sightings have been reported around the hotel over the years, including unexplained breezes, sounds, and smells, as well as doors opening and shutting without warning, and frequent sightings of a ghostly female figure that bears a resemblance to Kate Morgan. Guests have also reported feeling fingertips brush their cheeks at night, and Morgan’s initials have allegedly appeared on the ceiling of Room 3327.
According to the Hotel del Coronado, Morgan is also especially “active” in the hotel’s gift shop. Guests and workers claim that items at the shop occasionally fly off the shelves, but mysteriously remain unbroken.
That said, Kate Morgan is believed to be a fairly harmless ghost.
Hotel del CoronadoThe cover of Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado by Christine Donovan.
“She generally limits her activity to fleeting appearances and inexplicable antics… Guests in Kate’s room report everything from breezes that come from nowhere to having to deal with a television set that turns on and off by itself,” Donovan writes in Beautiful Stranger.
Rather than scaring guests away, the ghost of Kate Morgan has drawn many paranormal enthusiasts to the Hotel del Coronado. In fact, the room she stayed in before she died is the most requested room in the entire hotel.
After learning about Kate Morgan, the woman who purportedly haunts the Hotel del Coronado, check out these haunting photos of people taken just before they died. Then, read the true story of ‘The Conjuring’ and the families that were haunted for decades.
