Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Murder of Artemus Ogletree

On January 5, 1935, a man who had givenhis name as Roland T. Owen, later identified as ArtemusOgletree, died at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, UnitedStates of beating and stabbing injuries. His death was preceded by atwo-day stay in Room 1046 at the Hotel President in what is now thecity's Power & Light District marked by communication withsomeone named "Don", and unusual behavior and incidentsnoted by the hotel's staff, before he was found wounded in his roomthe morning of his death. When no next of kin could be located,leading to suspicions that his name was an alias, his body was storedin a local funeral parlor for almost two months. A planned burial inthe city's potter's field was averted when an anonymous donorprovided funds for a funeral and a floral arrangement signed"Louise".

The man's true identity remainedunknown for a year and a half until Ruby Ogletree, an Alabama womanwho had seen a photo of a distinctive scar on his head in the news,identified him as her son Artemus. She said he had left Birmingham in1934 at the age of 17 to hitchhike to California. Later she receivedtwo letters purportedly from him, some from as far away as Egypt. InAugust 1935 a caller claiming to be from Memphis, Tennessee told herthat Artemus was in Cairo. The letters had also been sent afterArtemus' death. Records kept by shipping companies found no recordsthat Ogletree had gone to Egypt. No other suspect has ever beenidentified.

The letters later were used to link thekilling to a 1937 murder in New York, but no charges were filedagainst the man arrested in that case, one of whose aliases had been"Donald Kelso". The FBI later investigated but wasunable to produce any new leads.

In 2012, a historian at the Kansas CityPublic Library wrote two posts on the library's blog about the case.At the end of the last one he revealed that in 2003 or 2004, he hadtaken a call from someone out of state related to the case. Thecaller said that they had been helping to inventory the belongings ofa recently deceased elderly person when they found a box withnewspaper clippings about the Ogletree case and an item mentionedrepeatedly in the stories, but they refused to say what that itemwas. The Kansas City police continue to investigate.

Biography

Artemus Ogletree was born in Florida in1915, one of three children. During his childhood an accident withsome hot grease left a sizable scar on his head above his ear, whichremained hairless afterward. In 1934 he left his family, by thenliving in Birmingham, Alabama, to hitchhike to California. He keptthem updated on his progress by mail; they wired him money.

President Hotel stay

Early on the afternoon of January 2,1935, Ogletree walked into the Hotel President, in what is now thePower & Light District of Kansas City, Missouri, and asked for aninterior room several floors up, giving his name as Roland T. Owen,with a Los Angeles address. Staff remembered him as dressed well andwearing a dark overcoat; he brought no bags with him.

Ogletree paid for one night. The staffnoted that in addition to the visible scar on his temple, he hadcauliflower ear, and concluded he was probably a boxer orprofessional wrestler. They believed him to be in his early 20s.

Randolph Propst, a bellhop, accompaniedOgletree up in the elevator to the 10th floor. On the way, Ogletreetold him that he had spent the previous night at the nearbyMuehlebach Hotel but found the $5 ($100 in current dollars) nightlyrate too high. Propst opened Room 1046, which per the guest's requestwas on the inside, overlooking the hotel's courtyard rather than thestreet outside. He watched as Ogletree took a hairbrush, comb andtoothpaste from his overcoat pocket, the extent of his unpacking.