On Thanksgiving Day in 1892, the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego was host to the rich and famous. No more so was a woman dubbed "the Beautiful Stranger" who checked in that day, only to die of a gunshot wound to the head on the back steps of the hotel just five days later during a vicious storm. Who was she? Was it murder or suicide? Scandalous rumors began to circulate of her involvement in crimes and dalliances with high and mighty that left Victorian America breathless.
Historian John T. Cullen found the real-life mystery fascinating and dug back into old records to discover the truth--and possibly point the finger at a murderer, 107 years later. ITW contributing editor Cathy Clamp sat down to talk with the author about his new novel Lethal Journey and the truth behind the fiction.
So, where did you first hear about this real-life mystery?
I had a fun, part-time job some years ago, driving the shuttle van at the Hotel del Coronado (a U.S. National Landmark, opened 1888) on Coronado Island, across San Diego Bay. During my offtime, I came across the hotel's official Heritage Department book about the famous ghost story. It's a book full of mysterious angles, tantalizing clues, baffling facts, and dead ends. I became fascinated, not so much for the famous ghost story, but with the 1892 Victorian crime/mystery. The popular legend of Tom and Kate Morgan is piquant, but far off the mark, and may actually be disinformation spread by what I call the Spreckels Machine during a coverup in 1892.
Why do you suppose the case was never solved? Were there conspiracies that withheld evidence that might have pointed the finger at someone high in society?
The true story as I unraveled it (with many diagrams, maps, and my own research on top of the Heritage Department's) seems pretty complex until you understand the salient clues. Then it's pretty easy to understand. It's a real Chinese puzzle box. Also, since the extremely wealthy John Spreckels was the target of Kate Morgan's blackmail plot, and Spreckels owned everything in San Diego after the city's 1889 financial collapse, including the newspapers and yes, the magnificent Hotel del Coronado, it's quite likely that his people in San Diego, including the Pinkertons, covered it up. He was involved in critical negotiations, at that very moment, in the White House with President Benjamin Harrison, over the fate of the Hawai'ian monarchy, so it was a very delicate matter with global ramifications.
Do you leave the mystery unsolved, or do you propose a solution?
I have solved it. I'm sure of that. Every last clue fits, and there are dozens of them. The solution actually proves that fact is far stranger (and more intriguing) than fiction. I published a scholarly analysis, with over 120 footnotes, in 2008, titled Kate Morgan: The Haunting Mystery of Coronado, in which I lay out the facts, detail for detail. In Lethal Journey, I have combined the best elements of the legend with my careful analysis, but Lethal Journey is first and foremost an entertaining thriller. I keep as close to my analysis as I can, but the legend offers some piquant angles that can't be overlooked.
Tell us a little more about your heroine, Kate Morgan--both in fiction and fact. What led you to believe she wasn't, in fact, the beautiful stranger who was murdered or killed herself?
I wouldn't call Kate Morgan a heroine, unless we're talking noir. It's really a tragic story, in which the real heroine is Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Wyllie, the beautiful and stunningly dressed young woman whom the hotel's official book can only identify as 'the Beautiful Stranger' because she checked under a phony name. When I wrote the story, for Kate Morgan I often thought of the character that Linda Fiorentino plays in The Last Seduction. She's ruthless, and uses her wiles--but, based on the evidence, I was able to paint her as a sympathetic character. As with Fiorentino's modern classic, you know she's evil, but you understand why she is the way she is. Her husband, Tom Morgan, is portrayed in legend, and in this book, as a violent, fearless criminal who's a very fast draw with the twin Deringers he keeps in his vest pocket. Lizzie is a wonderful character--dainty, beautiful, vain, near-sighted, an elegant dresser--a real-life version of that famous Victorian heroine, the Fallen Angel--epitomized by most major Victorian writers, from Dickens to Crane, but most of all by Thomas Hardy in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. Her lover, John Longfield, a married man with children, is another sorry picture, even according to his reputation back in 1892.
What was the most interesting thing you discovered in your research that didn't make it into the book?
I put everything in there. This is a true story, so there were some constraints, but at the same time it all flows effortlessly. So I don't think I left anything out. Mind you, this story was a national sensation in the Yellow Press at the time, with breathless dispatches going out via telegraph from San Diego and Los Angeles around the clock. Also, every police chief in the major U.S. cities was alerted as they were trying to identify the dead woman.
Is this the only novel where Kate Morgan will appear or do you plan other adventures using her as a heroine?
I think I'm done, now that the fictional suspense/thriller is in place. After three effortful years of writing this thing at least five different ways, including several nonfiction versions of my scholarly analysis before I got it right, I'm ready to move on.
Where can readers find more information about this book, along with the non-fiction analysis the novel was based on?
You can always visit my website, www.johntcullen.com, to read sample chapters of this and all my other books. There is a book, Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of the Hotel Del Coronado and Kate Morgan, which the hotel's Heritage Department published. Interestingly, right after I sent them a copy of Dead Move they withdrew their 2002 book, and only sell it in the hotel giftshop. In fact their book makes clear that the hotel wanted to cover up the ghost story for generations. There was a more liberal management in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and now there is a new management again that seems to want to go back to hushing the story up. Everyone in San Diego and Coronado knows of the legend. Their book, and my books Dead Move and Lethal Journey, are the only books I would suggest anyone read. Not because I'm an egotist--if there were any other good books I'd recommend them. There are one or two others that are ludicrously wrong and full of misinformation.
Will you be doing a signing tour for the release of the book? Where will you be or how can readers get a signed copy of the book?
I'll be continuing lectures and signings around the San Diego area at present. The book will be available in print to order from any bookstore or online, and there will be at least one digital edition through Fictionwise, a wholly owned subsidiary of B&N, which will also have the book in both digital and print editions starting this September.
USA Today bestselling author Cathy Clamp has co-authored over a dozen award winning paranormal romantic thrillers for Tor Books with C.T. Adams, along with multiple short stories and outdoor articles for magazines and anthologies. The duo's latest paranormal thriller, COLD MOON RISING, hit the shelves in August. They will release the first of a new urban fantasy series with Tor, "The Blood Singer" starting with BLOOD SONG, in summer 2010. She and her husband live in the Texas hill country where they raise goats--which (usually) keeps her out of trouble.
