The ghosts of Tucson's Hotel Congress

The Hotel Congress was built in 1919 to accommodate the growing cattle industry and the slew of travelers by train.  It was considered charming lodging for weary travels and fresh faces coming in from the East.

All that would change on January 22, 1934.  A basement fire spread up the elevator and onto the hotel’s third floor. Using the switchboard, the desk clerk called the third floor residents warning them of the alarming situation. The men fled from the fire by climbing down the aerial ladders to their safety.

However, the unidentified men seemed to be very worried about their luggage and they offered a fireman a generous tip to retrieve their heavy bags.

Later, the same fireman was reading an issue of True Detective Magazine and recognized the men whose luggage he had retrieved from the Hotel Congress fire. They were gang members of notorious criminal John Dillinger.

Dillinger and his gang of thugs traveled to Tucson to "lay low" after a series of bank robberies. They stayed on the third floor of the Hotel Congress under aliases and none where the wiser.

The fireman immediately called the police. A stake out ensued and John Dillinger was capture at house on North Second Street. The stake out lasted a total of five hours and not one single shot was fired. The small town police of Tucson seemed to have done something the FBI and several states’ worth of police were not able to do: to catch one of the most notorious criminals of all time. When Dillinger was caught he stated, "I’ll be damned."

In the Dillinger gang’s suitcases that were retrieved from the fire, police found they were filled with guns and $23, 816.

There are a lot of ghosts residing at the Hotel Congress. On the second floor an older man name T.S. wearing gray suit and hat is said to peer out the windows at unassuming passersby. Some say he was a gunshot victim of an out-of-hand card game.

At the stairwell and in the lobby, a woman wearing a Victoria gown is seen. She leaves the smell of rose perfume when she is around.

Some say a long-term resident named, Vince, who lived at the hotel for 36 years may have decided to make his stay permanent. Butter knives like the ones he used to use a screwdriver go missing from Cup Café and staff members have found them on the second floor.

In Room 242 a woman committed suicide and the room is said to be very creepy and heavy. It is usually the last room to be rented.