“The ghosts,” was my husband’s answer. The question? “What brings you to the Drake this weekend?”
As usual, my husband was trying to embarrass me. Or maybe he was trying to help me. I’m never quite sure. It’s sometimes hard to tell.
He’s not into the paranormal like I am, but he loves to travel. I sneak in the ghosts where I can. Which is how we found ourselves checking into the Drake at the end of December 2018. Allegedly a restless spirit or two hasn’t ever checked out. My kind of place.
Memory Making
It was a spontaneous trip to create a new, happier, memory.
I had told my husband at the end of 2017 that I wanted to go somewhere at the end of December 2018 if I was still healthy. It would be ten years since C-Day. I’d wanted to be gone doing something fun specifically for December 31st, a.k.a. my Cancer Diagnosisiversary.
While we did do something fun New Year’s Eve after all (although back in Nashville with friends), we ended up getting to be away for the Other Anniversary –the Admissionversary. December 28th. That’s the day my pain got so bad I finally caved and admitted I needed to go to the ER. (Where they found the tumor and scrambled to admit me.)
Anyway, it worked out that Chicago was where we wound up. I, of course, turned it into part Haunt Jaunt by making sure we stayed in a haunted hotel. The Drake.
I’m No Ghost Ho
The clerk’s eyes lit up mischievously in response to my husband’s answer.
“So you’ve heard the tales about the Woman in Red and the Woman in Black, have you?” he asked.
“I have heard nothing. I mean no offense when I say this, this looks like an awesome hotel, but this wouldn’t have been my first choice. She’s the one who likes to sleep with ghosts.”
Okay, that time I knew he was trying to embarrass me.
“I don’t like to sleep with ghosts,” I quickly interjected. “You make it sound like I’m some kind of slut…”
“If the sheet fits…”
This is the point where I always give him a dirty look. And it’s usually the point where the front desk clerk at least smiles, if not full on chuckles.
It’s all part of our act. One we’ve been doing for years. Small crowds. Always only hotel staff, maybe a couple other guests. Strictly gratis. (Though a time or two we’ve tickled a weary clerk enough that they upgraded us to a better room.)
The guy at the Drake had an awesome sense of humor. He totally found us amusing –and decided to have some fun too.
The Woman in the Painting
“See that portrait over there?” He nodded at the wall to our left where the portrait of an elegant lady hung.
“Is that her?” I asked excitedly. It’s not often you have an actual face of an alleged spirit to put to the rumored haunting.
The clerk paused for dramatic effect, then said, “No. But I got you going, didn’t I?”
“Got me,” I admitted begrudgingly, laughing. “But there is supposedly a ghost right?”
“Yes.”
“Tenth floor?”
“That’s where people have reported seeing the Woman in Red, yes. But there’s also the Woman in Black. Have you heard that story?”
I shook my head.
“That’s the one that creeps me out the most.” Noticing a line beginning to form (and that the woman of the couple behind us was looking nervous), he quickly added, “That’s all I’m going to say. Google it. You’ll see.”
As soon as I reached our room, I put my phone to work.
The Woman in Black
The best info I gleaned about the Woman in Black at the Drake hotel came from Mysterious Chicago Tours:
In January, 1944, Mrs. Adele Born Williams, a 58 year old society ‘matron,’ walked up to her eighth floor apartment at the Drake Hotel with her daughter and found the door unlocked. Inside, they found a gray-haired woman in a black persian lamb coat who had been hiding in the bathroom. Without a word, the woman pulled from her purse an antique pistol and fired two shots at Williams’ daughter. She missed, then left the bathroom and fired several shots at Mrs. Williams, eventually hitting her in the head, causing a wound that would prove fatal within hours.
The Suspects
- Her own daughter, Mrs. Goodbody. For whatever reason, authorities thought she could’ve made up the story about a woman in black laying in wait for her and her mother. The trouble was, Mrs. Williams had been able to speak before she died. She said there’d been a woman in black with a rose in her hair. She also said the woman yelled, “I will get you yet!” Plus, witnesses described seeing a mysterious woman in black flee from the hotel, so…it seems unlikely it was her daughter.
- A random burglar. Did mother and daughter interrupt a crime in progress?
- One of the convict’s sisters. The gun in the case was somehow traced to Walter Brown. He was actually in prison at the time of the crime, so it couldn’t have been him. But it could’ve been one of his two sisters, Ellen or Anna. I’m not quite clear if both were working at the Drake, or if one was and the other was just staying there. But at any rate, Ellen was a desk clerk (I believe at the key desk). Ellen seems the most likely suspect, but she was never charged, possibly because there wasn’t enough evidence?
But there may have been another answer. The woman in black wasn’t a woman at all…
Not a Woman?
After reading more about the Woman in Black, I couldn’t help but wonder why they’d never been able to find her.
That’s when I had an unnerving sensation followed by a voice whispering, “Because it wasn’t a woman.”
I say “a voice” because it wasn’t like the little voice that normally lives in my head. You know the one. I’m sure you have one too. This voice was different.
“But that makes no sense. All clues really do seem to point at Ellen Bennett,” I thought.
That quieted the voice, but the feeling persisted.
It. Wasn’t. A. Woman.
What if it wasn’t a woman?
Doubtful
The woman in black had been described wearing a black fur coat and a wig.
Ellen had once held up a woman in a park with a gun while wearing a wig. She also admitted to owning a black fur coat. (Though she hadn’t worn it during the park hold up.) Her past deeds really did implicate her. (The hold up is just one example. She had quite a shady past apart from that.) She also would’ve had access to the room key. (Something else that factored into the case.)
A man’s physique could easily have been masked by a bulky fur coat. And with the right wig, a man could’ve easily been mistaken for a woman.
However, disguising looks was one thing, but a voice? If the woman in black really had shouted, “I will get you yet!” that would’ve been harder to alter.
So it’s not likely that it was a man masquerading as a woman. Surely Mrs. Williams would’ve mentioned something about that.
So Who’s the Ghost?
As Mysterious Chicago Tours pointed out, people often get the legends mixed up and claim the Woman in Black is one of the Drake’s ghosts.
No.
Because “…the woman in black was the murderER, not the murderEE.”
As they put it, it’s a “case of a mistaken history.” (Mistaken haunted history, I’d say.)
The hotel also has a Woman in Red ghost story, but that’s a post for another day.
Bonus: Another Famous True Crime Connection
The Woman in Black case was a big deal back in the day. It remained a sensational story for years, but eventfully faded from the public’s radar.
However, it’s not the Drake’s only sensational true crime connection. Have you ever heard of Leopold and Loeb? They were the two wealthy college students who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks (who also hailed from a wealthy family) in 1924 in an attempt to commit the perfect crime.
The Franks family ended up moving out of their home on Ellis Avenue to dodge the “ghoulish tourists” who, according to the Chicago Crime Scene Project, “took photographs and knocked on the door at all times.”
Where’d they move? Into the Drake hotel. (Mr. Franks would also live out his last days there.)
Boo-K It!
If you want to stay at the Drake, you can Boo-k it through both of our affiliates, Expedia and Hotels.com.
(Expedia)
The Drake, a Hilton Hotel
Overlooking Lake Michigan, this opulent 1920s landmark Chicago hotel is set on the Magnificent Mile, with the shops of Water Tower Place a block away; Oak Street Beach is across the street. High-speed Internet
(Hotels.com)
The Drake, a Hilton Hotel
A stay at The Drake, a Hilton Hotel places you in the heart of Chicago, steps from Downtown Chicago and Magnificent Mile. Featured amenities include a business center, limo/town car service, and express check-out. Event facilities at this hotel consist of conference space and meeting rooms. Self parking (subject to charges) is available onsite.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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Did you go to the 10th floor? Did you see the Lady in Red? Anything unnerving or bumps in the night?
I DID got up to the 10th floor. I didn’t see the Woman in Red, though. I was wondering if I might, since it was so close to the anniversary when she allegedly died. (We were there 12/27-12/30. She died on New Year’s Eve –or maybe it was right after the clock struck midnight do technically it was New Year’s Day?) At any rate, very wild story. Though a couple of investigators doubt the veracity of it happened because they couldn’t find newspaper reports to back it up. However, some also speculate the hotel might’ve tried to kill the story so as not to tarnish it’s image. Super interesting. Have you stay there too? If so, did you see her?