Room 1046

On January 2nd, 1935, Roland T. Owen, whose real name was really Artemus Ogletree, checked into the now named Hilton President Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. 

He originally wanted to check into the Muehlebach Hotel, but found the prices too steep. He mentioned he was from Los Angeles and asked for an interior room. He was well-dressed with a large overcoat and appeared to have a large, white, wedge-shaped scar, four and one-half inches across the base over the left ear and a cauliflower ear. He was about 20 to 35 years old, 5'10",180 lbs, with blue eyes and bushy brown hair. He registered to stay for three days but only had a toothbrush and a comb with him. 

The bell boy took Roland to room 1046.

Later, Roland allowed the maid to clean the room. He had the shades drawn with a lamp as being the only source of light. He seemed agitated and asked her to leave the door unlocked when she was done, because he was expecting a visit from a friend.

At 4 p.m., the maid returned to Roland's room with more towels and found the door was unlocked. When she went inside, Roland was in the dark laying on the bed and completely dressed. There was a note on the bedside table that read, "Don, i'll be back in fifteen minutes, wait."

The next day, the maid came back to clean Roland's room again and noticed that his door was locked from the outside this time. This lead her to believe that Roland was out. When she entered the room, Roland was still laying on the bed with the lights off.  With the maid still in the room, Roland answered a phone call and said "No Don, i don't want to eat. i am not hungry. I just had breakfast. No i am not hungry."

The maid returned again at 4 p.m. to deliver fresh towels and heard two male voices coming from Roland's room. She knocked on the door and a rough voice asked, "Who is it?" When she said she was the maid and she had fresh towels the rough voice replied, "We don't need any." So the maid left.

A worker for the Kansas City Water Department offered a ride to a young man running along 13th Street, about a mile and a half away from the President Hotel. Lane was surprised by the man being dressed in only pants and an undershirt, with no coat. The worker noticed a deep scratch on the man’s arm and the way the man cupped his hands. He asked about the arm once the young man asked to get dropped off somewhere he could catch a taxi. The young man responded by saying, “I’ll kill him tomorrow." The worker dropped the man in a taxi stand and never saw him again.

Later that night, a guest in room 1048 reported hearing loud female and male voices cursing on the same floor. There was however, a party going on in room 1055.

A hooker, in the 30’s, had walked into the hotel looking for a man in room 1026 that she supposedly had a meeting with. At a later time, the elevator operator was summoned by the woman, who was with a man. The operator took them to the ninth floor.

The next morning around 7 a.m., the hotel's phone operator noticed that Roland's room phone had been off the hook for over 10 minutes without it being in use. She sent the bell boy up to check things out. The door was locked and there was a do not disturb sign on the door. Despite this, the bell boy knocked on the door and heard a squeaky voice say, "Come in, turn on the lights." The bell boy couldn't unlocked the door, because it was locked from the inside and whoever was in the room wouldn't get up to let him in. The bell boy knocked on the door again and yelled for the phone to be hung up.

An hour and a half later, the phone was still off the hook and a different bell boy let himself in the dark room with the passkey. With only the light from the hall, it appeared that Roland was naked and drunk in bed. The phone stand was kicked over so the bell boy fixed it and hung the phone up before leaving the room.

The original bell boy was sent back up to deal with the situation. When the bell boy opened the door, Roland was on his elbows and knees. He had blood on his head which he was holding in his hands. The bell boy turned on the light and saw that there was blood on the walls, the bed and in the bathroom. The bell boy ran out and down stairs.

When investigators arrived, they discovered that Roland had been tied up with a cord around his neck wrists an ankles. It appeared that he had been tortured. There was even blood on the ceiling above the bed. He had been struck repeatedly on the head and his skull was fractured. Roland had also been stabbed several times in the chest, which punctured his lung. His neck was bruised. Despite all of this Roland was still alive. Detectives asked Roland who else had been in his room and he replied, "Nobody." And claimed that he fell against the bathtub. Roland fell unconscious as an ambulance took him to the hospital.

It was surmised that Roland acquired his injuries 6-7 hours earlier. There were no weapons found in his room. Suicide was ruled out. Four fingerprints were found on the phone that appeared to be from a female.

Roland died after midnight. No one knew the real identity of Roland and announced his story in the newspaper and that he was going to be buried in an unmarked grave. An anonymous person sent money and a letter stating that they would pay for the man to have a proper funeral. There were also flowers sent anonymously with a card that read. " Love Forever, Louise" The funeral home also received an anonymous call from a man. The man said that the funeral was paid for and that, "He will be buried by my sister." The man then insisted that Roland be buried in Kansas City's Memorial Park Cemetery. Allegedly the man also explained that Roland had jilted a woman the man knew, and that the three of them had met at the hotel about it. “Cheaters usually get what’s coming to them,” the man said, and then hung up.

A year and a half later, a lady named Ruby Ogletree, came forward after she saw Roland's story, along with his picture, in a newspaper. She recognized the man as her 17-year-old son. She also had received typed letters from Roland after his death. Roland allegedly didn't know how to type.

One of the letters that Ruby received from Roland claimed that he was in Chicago attending a business school. One said he was sailing from New York to Europe. Then, in August of 1935, a man who said his name was Jordan called Ruby, said he was a friend of her son, and claimed that Roland had saved his life and was now married to a wealthy woman in Cairo, Egypt. He said that Roland couldn’t type anymore because he’d lost a thumb in a brawl. 
Investigators found out that Roland had also stayed at the St. Regis in Kansas City with another man. 

So we know who Roland really was, but who was Don? 

In 1937,  a man who went by the alias "Joseph Ogden"  was arrested for the murder of his roommate. One of Ogden’s other known aliases was Donald Kelso, and his appearance was similar to the description of the Donald Kelso who’d stayed at the St. Regis with Ogletree. But this was never investigated.
In 2002, Dr. John Horner wrote about Roland's case and it was published by the Kansas City Public Library. He received a phone call about Roland. He told Horner that he had found a box of newspaper clippings about Roland's murder that belonged to a elderly person who passed away. There was also something else found in the box, but i can't find any information on to what that was.

Will we ever know who did this terrible thing to Roland?