Stories from the Elk Hotel
The Haunting
By B.W. Thines
The other day I was talking to Burt Button, who lives on the third
floor. Burt claims there is a ghost lurking on the third floor and that
it was at his door last night. I asked Burt, “How do you know it was at
your door?” He said he heard the door knob being turned. Burt said this
all occurred around two a.m. Burt is one of our more rational
residents so I would not just dismiss what he said. I reviewed the
camera footage from that floor and it did not show anyone at Burt’s door
on or around two a.m.
Ahmed Abdoman claims to have talked to a spirit that roams the third floor halls and claims it speaks a foreign language.
Our Indian resident Chewie Yoofood got together with Burt, Ahmed and
others on the floor for a séance to summon this spirt. During the
séance they summoned a male spirit that was a German soldier. Chewie
told me he could not understand what the connection this spirit had with
inhabiting the hotel.
I was taking to Ed Carr, the Hotel Manager about this matter over
coffee Saturday morning. Ed remembered a German guy that lived at the
hotel during the 60s into the 70s and that he died in his room. Ed said
he would check the archives to see what information he had on this
guy. Ed got back to me Wednesday morning on what he found, and it was
one great story.
Ed said the guy he remembered was named Siegfried Munster and he did
live in room 302, the same room that Burt Button now resides in. What
is even more interesting is that Siegfried did serve in the German Army
during World War Two. He was captured by the American Army in 1943 and
brought to America to serve his time in a Prisoner of War camp that was
located in Geneva, New York. After the war was over the prisoners of
war were given their freedom. Some of the Germans returned to Germany,
but some were granted U.S. citizenship. One person granted citizenship
was Siegfried Munster.
Before he was drafted into the German Army in 1939, Siegfried was an
apprentice optical lens maker. Siegfried worked under a senior
craftsman for four years before the war. A fter being released from the
POW camp Siegfried got a job at Eastman Kodak because of his knowledge
in optical lens manufacturing...continued