In the mountains of Arizona, on the road between Sedona and Prescott, sits a small town with a surprising number of ghost stories. From a hospital where thousands died to a beautiful prostitute brutally murdered, let’s take a look at just two of the hauntings of Jerome, Arizona.
Up on Hill Street sits the Jerome Grand Hotel. This impressive building is a great place to spend the night, in spite of, or maybe because of, the hotel’s reputation for hauntings. Much of the paranormal activity is said to stem from the Grand Hotel’s past life as the United Verde Hospital.
The hospital’s history is filled with death, something not altogether unusual for a hospital. Yet around 9,000 people are said to have met their end at the United Verde Hospital, a pretty high number, and some of those deaths occurred in strange and mysterious ways.
Consider the hotel’s room 32. During the hospital days, room 32 was a guest room with a balcony, and also the site of two alleged suicides. One was a miner who was confined to a wheelchair. Perhaps it was the prospect of spending the rest of his life in the chair that drove the miner to the balcony where he threw himself over the railing. A local businessman also killed himself in room 32, shooting himself in the head for reasons that have never been explained.
Visitors to the hotel report disembodied voices, doors slamming, and feelings of uneasiness, like they’re being watched by someone or something they can’t see.
Down in the basement, hospital maintenance man Claude Harvey met a gruesome end. No one knows exactly how, but it seems that Claude was working on the elevator one day when something went wrong. He was found, crushed to death under the metal elevator car.
Today, people say they hear the elevator running at all hours of the night. When the car arrives and the doors open, it’s empty.
Elsewhere in Jerome, many people say the spirit of a lady of the night still walks the streets, more than 80 years after her murder.
Sammie Dean was born Marie Juanita Loveless in Texas. She wandered through life until finding her way Jerome and becoming Sammie Dean, the prostitute. By all accounts, Sammie was a popular lady, well off financially and with plenty of friends in town.
Then one day Sammie’s friends came to check on her when they hadn’t seen her all day. The door to her room was locked, and when they finally got in, they found Sammie strangled and her room in disarray.
A couple of suspects were investigated, including the mayor’s own son, but Sammie’s murder remains unsolved to this day.
Walk the streets and alleys of Jerome, and it’s said that you might find yourself running across the ghost of Sammie Dean. Why she still haunts the place of her death is a mystery. Perhaps she’s searching for her murderer, seeking justice from beyond the grave.