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Hotels have long been the scene of shocking real-life tales. Here are 10 hotel-related events that will unsettle you and leave you in disbelief.
10 Eerie Coincidences That Will Make You Question Reality
In early 2013, Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old from Vancouver, checked into the notorious Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. Struggling with bipolar disorder, Elisa was last seen acting erratically in the hotel’s elevator, pressing multiple buttons and frantically entering and exiting the doors, captured on CCTV footage.
For reasons known only to herself, Elisa found herself inside one of the 1.2 by 2.4 meter (2 x 8 ft) cylindrical metal water tanks on the rooftop. Her decomposing body was discovered weeks later when guests began to report low water pressure. The tank’s water had been used by guests for drinking, brushing teeth, and showering during that time.
But the story takes an even eerier turn. At the same time as Elisa Lam's tragic death, a tuberculosis outbreak was spreading through downtown Los Angeles, prompting health authorities to urge people to get tested. The name of the tuberculosis test was the Lam Elisa Test.
9 Blues That Ruin the Mood and Stop the Feast
In 1931, 40-year-old George R. Sanders checked into the Dixie Hotel in Manhattan with the intent to end his life. He was initially assigned a room on the seventh floor, but later switched to a room on the fourteenth floor to make his attempt more certain. He left a note for the police: “Cause of death, suicide. Reason, mental depression. Letters for safe boxes and other papers will be found in the top bureau drawer, right side, at home. See that instructions are carried out.” George, ever so considerate, thought of nearly everything—but failed to consider where he would land after jumping.
George crashed through the roof of a nearby restaurant, landing directly at the feet of a horrified couple dining and the restaurant’s night manager. It's strikingly ironic that a man who had so meticulously tied up the final details of his life should 'check out' in such a traumatic and chaotic manner.
At least the restaurant’s staff and patrons weren’t as unfortunate as the innocent pedestrian who was killed by a suicide jumper in 1962 while walking past the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.
8 Denial Isn’t Just A River in Egypt, Or Saudi Arabia
In 2010, Saudi Arabian prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud brutally murdered his male submissive servant in a high-end London hotel. While there was a sexual element to the crime, the prince persistently denied this fact. He was also charged with grievous bodily harm after violently attacking the submissive in one of the hotel’s elevators—the entire event caught on CCTV.
The submissive, Bandar Abdulaziz, had bite marks on his cheeks and ears, some of which were inflicted before his murder, with dental impressions matching Al Saud’s teeth. These injuries were believed to have occurred during sadistic sexual acts. It seems the two had been involved in a brutally abusive master-slave relationship for quite some time.
Al Saud had repeatedly attacked his servant “for his own personal pleasure.” Despite a gay masseur testifying in court, Al Saud continued to deny his homosexuality. Allegedly, he had requested the masseur after finding him on an “extremely homoerotic website.” Despite his wealth and royal status, Al Saud was denied diplomatic immunity and sentenced to life in prison. Had he admitted to his homosexuality, he might have been executed by decapitation—if he had even been allowed to return to Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality remained punishable by death.
7 A Hellish, Titanic-Like Hotel Disaster
The Winecoff Hotel, once proudly called “absolutely fireproof” by its designers, became the site of a horrifying real-life inferno. In 1946, a devastating tragedy struck in Atlanta, claiming 119 lives. The building had no fire escapes, no alarms, no sprinklers—only one central stairwell. This stairwell, the supposed escape route, quickly became a deadly chimney, filling with toxic smoke and sealing the fate of many.
Firefighters were only able to reach halfway up the 16-story building. Faced with no other option, people were forced to jump from the upper floors. Thirty-two died from the falls, many having tried in vain to escape the searing heat, smoke, and flames by tying sheets into makeshift ropes. Amateur photographer Arnold Hardy won a Pulitzer Prize for capturing the tragic moment of a woman falling from the blaze. The fire was thought to have been ignited by a cigarette discarded onto a mattress in the third-floor hallway, potentially set deliberately to start the fire.
6 Castro’s Castrating Tragedy
Carlos Castro, a 65-year-old well-known Portuguese television presenter and journalist, had been preparing to ring in the New Year in New York’s Times Square. His celebration with his 23-year-old male-model boyfriend, Renato Seabra, seemed to be going smoothly at first, but things quickly unraveled, as did Seabra’s mental state.
Seabra grew enraged after being rejected by Castro and denied more access to the older man’s money. A violent argument erupted between the two. Seabra struck Castro’s head with a laptop, and as his lover lay bleeding, he castrated him using a jagged broken wine glass and a blunt corkscrew.
During his court trial, Seabra initially pleaded insanity, claiming he believed he was eliminating homosexuality by removing Castro’s testicles and intending to wear them on his wrists. However, the prosecution argued that Seabra was merely faking madness. Aside from his violent actions, he was shown to have been cold, calculating, and manipulative throughout their entire relationship. The judge, before sentencing him to 25 years in prison, described the crime as brutally sadistic, dehumanizing, and horrifying.
5 A Shocking Blaze That Left The World Stunned
Frederick Berry Jr., a young man from Wayne, Nebraska, had recently arrived in New York City in search of a better life. He was staying in a rented room on the 12th floor of the Dixie Hotel in Manhattan when he received a chilling letter from his father. According to the letter, Frederick’s mother had experienced a terrifying premonition that something terrible was about to befall her son.
Just a day or so later, hotel staff noticed smoke coming from under the door of Berry’s room. They entered to find him badly burned, unconscious but sitting upright in a charred chair. His upper body had been completely incinerated. He was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, but tragically died from his injuries less than four hours after being discovered.
Back in the hotel room, the letter was discovered. In it, Berry’s father, a lawyer, urged his son to be cautious and to write home every day until his mother’s anxiety eased.
4 A Do-Or-Die Diamond Heist
A man who introduced himself as Dr. George D. Pullman checked into the Savoy Hotel in London on March 1, 1909. He arrived dressed in fine clothes, speaking with an American accent, and ordered a full suite of rooms with no intention of paying. Hotel staff were so taken by his story of his wife and maid following in a motorcar that they didn't question his legitimacy. To further solidify his persona, he later inquired at reception about nearby places to purchase automobile tires, an obvious sign of affluence at the time.
Pullman next visited a jeweler in the Burlington Arcade, where he requested to view a selection of diamond rings and a luxurious diamond collar necklet. After inspecting the pieces, he instructed the jeweler to send the rings to the Savoy Hotel for his wife to examine. Just as he was about to leave, he had a change of heart, returning to ask for the necklet as well, but with the condition that three diamond drops be removed to reduce its price.
After Pullman departed from the jeweler’s, the assistant manager, Penton, followed him to the Savoy, bringing the jewelry with him. Like the hotel staff, Penton initially fell for Pullman’s elaborate ruse. He waited in the hotel suite’s sitting room while Pullman disappeared into another room where his supposed wife was getting dressed.
Pullman took five rings with him into the other room, leaving the door ajar. Penton overheard Pullman speaking and a woman’s voice replying. When Pullman returned, he said his wife had approved the rings and now wished to see the necklet. He went into the other room again, taking the necklet with him, but this time, he shut the door behind him.
Penton’s suspicion grew when both voices fell silent. He quietly slipped into the corridor and waited. Moments later, a figure wearing a soft cap and heavy overcoat emerged from the room. It was Pullman, now in disguise. There was no sign of the wife. Realizing he had been duped, Pullman pretended to be distressed and instructed Penton to fetch a maid, claiming his wife had suddenly fallen ill.
The jeweler was not fooled again. A struggle ensued until Pullman relinquished four of the five rings, crumpled on the floor, and begged to be let go. Penton stood firm in the doorway as he waited for assistance. In a dramatic turn, Pullman allegedly pulled a razor from his pocket and slit his own throat. The jeweler ran to get help, but when he returned with a porter, Pullman had vanished without a trace.
The impersonator’s unconventional escape plan had its flaws: 1) He left a blood trail for his pursuers to follow, and 2) After descending a spiral staircase from a balcony, he was so drained from blood loss by the time he reached the bottom that he lacked the strength to go any further.
During the coroner’s inquest, the razor was a focal point of interest. Was it really from Pullman’s pocket? The coroner questioned Penton about whether he ever carried a weapon, to which Penton denied. If you believe Penton’s account, it seems routine to leave a jeweler’s shop, unarmed, with a bag full of valuable jewels, after being asked by a stranger. There’s still something about this story that doesn’t quite add up.
3. Thailand’s Death Island
In 2012, two Canadian sisters staying at a hotel on Phi Phi Island in Thailand were found dead under strange circumstances. Their bodies, discovered in their beds, showed signs of distress with bleeding gums, blue lips, and discolored nails. Their skin was covered in lesions, and their room reeked of vomit. They had likely been dead for some time, having last been seen returning from a bar on June 13th. They remained in the room until a maid entered with a master key on the 15th.
The young women had unmistakably been poisoned. Initial autopsy results from Thailand suggested severe food poisoning. A Canadian coroner later dismissed the theory that the insecticide DEET was the cause, claiming the amount found in their bodies was too minimal to have been lethal. In 2009, two other women—one American, the other Norwegian—died under eerily similar circumstances at the same resort. Other similar deaths had been reported, but the causes remained undetermined, although poisoning was suspected in all cases.
Another wave of suspicious fatalities occurred in Chiang Mai, a northern city in Thailand, where several foreign visitors staying at the same hotel may have been poisoned by chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used to kill bed bugs. Many suspect that Thai authorities may have covered up the incident to protect the country’s tourism industry. Within just three months, Thai police closed the investigation into the deaths of the Canadian sisters.
2. Terrorist Loses Head But Ultimately Saves Face
In August 2003, during lunchtime in a busy commercial district of Jakarta, Indonesia, Asmar Latin Sani drove a Toyota packed with explosives. The final moments of his life were captured by CCTV as he arrived at the Marriott Hotel, only to be approached by a security guard.
The vehicle erupted in a violent explosion. Within moments, dozens of windows were shattered by the deadly blast. Burned bodies littered the streets, and people were seen fleeing from office buildings, their faces engulfed in flames. The Marriott's first five floors were reduced to a chaotic scene of twisted metal, broken glass, and thick black smoke.
The explosion’s force was so immense that initially, it seemed impossible to identify the driver. However, the situation changed when Sani’s severed head was discovered on the fifth floor. After some facial reconstruction, the head was shown to two imprisoned terrorists, who recognized Sani and admitted to having recruited him. His identity was later confirmed through DNA testing on the head.
1. Dozens Die At Hyatt
In 1981, over a thousand people gathered at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City to take part in a dance event. The dance took place in the hotel lobby, with spectators perched on the second, third, and fourth-floor walkways above. Prior to the event, the walkways had been slightly modified, which increased the pressure on the load-bearing rods that barely supported the walkways, let alone the additional weight of the crowd. Tragically, the fourth-floor walkway collapsed first, pulling the second-floor walkway below it as it fell.
The disaster captured headlines across America and around the globe as the rescue efforts stretched on for over 14 hours. Those who were fatally injured were informed they would not survive and were given morphine for comfort. In order to free those still alive but trapped in the debris, many of the already deceased were dismembered. The Wyatt collapse claimed 114 lives, becoming the deadliest structural failure in U.S. history until the tragic events of the Twin Towers. The rescue workers involved in the operation carried the psychological scars of the disaster long after it ended.
