June 24, 2025

Room 1046: A Man Was Murdered in a Hotel Room. Still unsolved after 89 years.

A man checks into a Kansas City hotel under a fake name.
Two days later, he’s found tortured and dying — inside a room locked from the outside.
No weapon. No suspect. No answers.

This is the case of Room 1046 — one of the strangest unsolved murders in U.S. history.
Fake names. Mysterious phone calls. Letters sent after the victim was already dead.
And nearly 90 years later, no one knows who killed him. Or why.

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Credits:"Music by Alexander Nakarada / https://www.creatorchords.com"

#TrueCrime #UnsolvedMurder #LockedRoomMystery #Room1046 #ArtemusOgletree #RolandTOwen #ColdCase #HotelCrime #1930sCrime #HistoricalMystery #CreepyRealStories #RealCrimeStories #HumansBeingAwful

Show Notes

A locked door. A tortured young man.
No closure.

Summary

In January 1935, a teenager checks into Kansas City’s President Hotel under a fake name.
He brings nothing but a hairbrush and toothpaste, keeps the blinds drawn, and asks hotel staff not to lock the door.
He answers phone calls from someone named “Don.”

Two days later, bellboys find him beaten, stabbed, tied, and barely alive—on the floor of Room 1046.
The room was locked from the inside. No weapon. No witness.

The name he gave was an alias. No one claimed him.
After months, someone anonymously paid for his funeral—and sent 13 roses signed “Louise.”
Years later, typed letters arrive, postmarked after his death.
His real identity? A kid named Artemus Ogletree, finally identified thanks to a photo in The American Weekly.

A case full of dead ends. Still unsolved. Still unnerving.

In This Episode

How he checked in as Roland T. Owen—and what hotel staff noticed
The phone calls from “Don,” the argument, and how the door was locked
The grisly discovery: tied, beaten, stabbed—no weapon in sight
How his story didn’t match the injuries—and why that matters
The strange letters mailed after his death
The theories that surfaced—and the suspects that never stuck

Takeaway

No suspect. No motive.
Just a hotel room with secrets we’ll probably never know.

Room 1046: A Man Was Murdered in a Hotel Room. Still unsolved after 89 years.

Summary

In This Episode

Takeaway

Sources