February 12, 2020 • 11 mins
A couple unknowingly spending the night above a dead body stuffed under their bed is a longstanding urban legend. And a true one.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
There's Josh, and this is short stuff. Like I said twice,
now I'm wasting time. Let's just go. So this is
about finding your worst nightmare. Realized this is pretty universal
worst nightmare stuff. Yes, this is about the idea that
(00:25):
if you go to a hotel and you're sleeping, and
you get up in the morning and you're like, what
is that weird smell? And you check out, you will
probably never know this. I doubt if they would follow
up and let you know, but there could be a
dead body under that bed. Yeah. And what's weird is
this as an urban legend, very widespread one. The you know,
(00:46):
some friend of my cousin who he works with, went
to Vegas with his wife once and got on an
elevator with Eddie Murphy, right, and he had a dog
and Eddie Murphy said, sit lady, and the wife sat
down and Eddie Murphy said, no, I was talking to
my dog, and then gave them paid off their mortgage.
It's right, Uh, No different than that that, Like, you know,
(01:07):
your cousin's friend coworker went to Vegas and this happened
to him what's weird about this, Chuck is Snopes is
on the case, and God bless Snopes for doing everything
they do. They said, not only has this happened, this
has happened many times over. This is one of those
rare urban legends that is actually true. That's right. Uh,
(01:29):
And a lot of hotels there are It's sort of
a platform me box spring situation where there is a
cavernous area under the box spring, but above that that
platform that turns out is just right for storing a body. Yeah,
every every criminal knows you want to store a body.
Every motel in America has you covered pretty much. Should
(01:51):
we go through some of these? I think we should,
because again, like this has happened many times um. One
of the first one Snopes talks about happened in two
thousand three at the Capri Motel in downtown Kansas City.
And one of the recurring themes that I've seen, Chuck
is management sometimes won't do anything. They'll be like, sorry, nothing,
you's gonna be done, And this is the only room
we have. You have to stay here, and people will
(02:13):
stay there despite the stench of what turns out to
be a decomposing body, like in this case, Yet a
dead thing is a very specific smell. I would not
for one second even unpack my suitcase and give it
a shot. Right. Well, this guy in Kansas City not
only unpacked a suitcase after complaining about the room and
being told nothing could be done about it. Um, he's
(02:33):
stay there for three nights from July tenth to July
thirte and finally checked out because of the smell. And
I looked on those dates in two thousand three in
Kansas City, it got up to around ninety so I'll
bet it was pretty smelling. And finally housekeeping was like, well,
let's figure out what this is, and they lift up
the mattress and there was a body in the state
(02:54):
of advanced decomposition. July I'm sorry, June, sixty four year
old named saw Hernandez was discovered inside and under her
bed at the Burgundy Motor d I hate calling out
these hotels, but I guess it is what it is,
Room one twelve. Yeah, this gets really specific. Don't say
(03:15):
they're in Atlantic City. In fact, it's Atlantic City, so
it may not even be there at this point. Yeah,
I was wondering that myself, but a German couple, God
bless him. They didn't know any better. They spent the
night there sleeping over his body. They complained to the
manager about the smell. They said, mind galt do something
about it, and that's when they found the body. Yeah,
German tourists are recurring motif in this urban legend come
(03:38):
to life, because in in Florida there were two cases
in Florida alone, and both of them were bodies that
were discovered after complaints from German tourists. So they have
really bad luck with this kind of stuff. Lovely Pasadena, California,
the Wonderful Colorado Boulevard Travel Lodge. In July, a woman
(03:59):
was found under a mattress. They discovered her ten days later,
after guests had complained for several days of a foul odor.
At this point, I would think if someone says there's
a bad smell, I would just immediately assume it's a
body and look. Yeah, you'd think it would be like
a recurring kind of like column that pops up in
(04:19):
like the Hotel Times or you know, Motel Industry News
magazine or something like that, But I guess not, because
it still continues. Um there this The Snopes traced it
all the way back to I think two was there
the first report that they mentioned. I don't know if
it was the first time it's ever happened, but um,
between two and two thousand ten they found ten cases.
(04:43):
And this is not just a body being discovered in
a hotel room. Apparently that happens multiple times a day,
every day everywhere in the world. I guess from what
this looks like. But what Snopes is saying is like, no,
we got to stick to the urban legend where somebody
the body was discovered because somebody slept above it overnight.
And at least ten times between eighty two and two
(05:06):
and ten that happened. Yeah, and that's you know that
cut it off. Like you said in two thousand and ten,
if you just google a dead body hotel mattress, that
happens a lot. Still. Yeah, there was there was one
then Austin last year, one the year before, somewhere else
I can't remember, but they're kind of all over the place.
It seems like an annual event, like the Macy's Thanksgiving
Day parade or something. Yeah, one smells way worse than
(05:30):
the other. I'll let you guess. Yeah, So do you
want to take a break and come back a little bit. Yeah,
we'll come back in a second talk a little bit
about another way that bodies find their way to hotel rooms.
(06:08):
So what we talked about before was specifically, like you said,
the urban legend of bodies under a mattress under a
box spring. Uh. My thought was, like, how are they
getting there? The answer is they're they're all murder cases
general pretty much murder or say like a couple of
people are partying in a hotel and one of them
dies and the other one doesn't want to like get questions,
(06:31):
mattress man stashed the body. Yeah, Because I think there's
two things about this, right, There's people like average people
who check into a hotel. People like you and me,
We stay in hotels. We stay in hotels, right, um,
sleeping unknowingly above just inches above a decomposing body. That's
part one that's horrible. But I think the second part
(06:52):
of it that makes it so horrible is like the
indignity of having your body just stuffed under a mattress
and a CD hotel, you know. Yeah, So I think
those two things combined and the fact that it's actually
happens in real life is just it makes it horrific. Well,
one of the other ways a body very sadly can
be found in a hotel and not under a mattress
(07:12):
is obviously, uh suicide. People apparently check into hotels to
do this a lot for obvious reasons. You wanna you
don't want your family to have a mess necessarily. Another
reason is to avert exposure, maybe to the media. And
I think it's just sort of gets buried in the
news if it's just a random hotel suicide kind of thing.
(07:35):
Casinos apparently had the highest suicide rate, uh, and Las
Vegas has the high suicide rate in the country. I
could see that if like you just lost a bunch
of money, that has something to do with it. They said,
this is not all of it, but a lot of
people show up in Vegas desperate and destitute, you know,
trying to gamble their way back to you know, not
(07:55):
necessarily even prosperity. Oh man, that's a sad scene you
just painted. Yeah, but you were joking in the thing
about it being In the hotel industry, there was an
article called how to Properly respond to a guest death
in your Hotel published in a journal for hotel managers
that I found, and they said a big thing in
Vegas is they don't and most big hotels now don't
(08:17):
let you just open the windows, but a lot of
them do have balcony. Still Vegas they don't even have
balconies because of the suicide problem. So they said that
leads some people to make a final leap, like in
an atrium style lobby. And he says in this article
that hotel managers should keep a very large, dark colored
(08:37):
tarp made of impermeable material on hand and available at
all times, just so you can run out there very
quickly and covered that mess up. So, but not only
the mess it's really dangerous. I mean people walk through atrium. Yeah,
that's really irresponsible. Yeah, you could land on someone obviously. Yeah,
and I'm imagine that would probably kill both people. Yes,
(09:00):
I would think so too. Uh. And you know, we
did an episode on crime scene clean up times times
out of a hundred. That's what's going on here. If
something happens in a hotel room. There's a guy in
a San Francisco based company called crime Scene Cleaners that
he said that hotel chains are as big as clients
and that suicide cleanups is most of his business. I mean,
(09:22):
it definitely makes sense in a very grizzly way, like
not wanting to put your family through that, but unfortunately
you're putting some housekeeper through it. Yeah. The good news
is is that almost everything is is thrown away. That
they're not just like pull the sheets and we'll you know,
watch them. They're like this killo because still mostly good. Yeah,
they like they don't rip up the part of the
(09:43):
carpet that's stayed. They kind of gut the place basically,
sometimes even the dry wall. They get rid of all
the clock, radio and everything. Because they were like, if
there's a little tiny piece of brain that you don't
notice on something that heats up like the electricity, that'll stink.
Plus plus it could be haunted. Now it's obviously haunted.
(10:05):
But those are in like decent hotels that uh you know,
even like kind of cruddy hotel chains. I think still
do a good job. That. The scary part is if
it happens in a really not great place. Because there's
a Reddit thread called tails from the front Desk. Oh,
I gotta get on that where No, don't do it, dude,
You'll never tour again. You'll never leave your house. Because
(10:27):
these are all insider stories. And this one guy was like, yeah, guy,
uh died by suicide on my shift. The owner found
out how much it costs for a professional cleanup, and
he said to flip the mattress. No, yes, no they
ever say where they worked. I don't know, anonymous. I
(10:47):
think it's probably this one was anonymous man. This is
just a hotel house cleaner. Um. And the other thing, too,
is I guess we can close with is when people
decide to do this, oftentimes they pick like the best room,
the nicest, sweet because you don't have to pay for it. Sure, yeah, yeah,
that's that's so. Don't think if you're getting the high
(11:08):
Roller suite that that room is safe from ghosts. Right. Wow,
that's something else, Chuck, you really brought it. Thank you. Well.
Since Chuck brought it and we're out of info, that's
it for short Stuff. So if short Stuff is out,
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's
How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
(11:31):
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
There's Josh, and this is short stuff. Like I said twice,
now I'm wasting time. Let's just go. So this is
about finding your worst nightmare. Realized this is pretty universal
worst nightmare stuff. Yes, this is about the idea that
(00:25):
if you go to a hotel and you're sleeping, and
you get up in the morning and you're like, what
is that weird smell? And you check out, you will
probably never know this. I doubt if they would follow
up and let you know, but there could be a
dead body under that bed. Yeah. And what's weird is
this as an urban legend, very widespread one. The you know,
(00:46):
some friend of my cousin who he works with, went
to Vegas with his wife once and got on an
elevator with Eddie Murphy, right, and he had a dog
and Eddie Murphy said, sit lady, and the wife sat
down and Eddie Murphy said, no, I was talking to
my dog, and then gave them paid off their mortgage.
It's right, Uh, No different than that that, Like, you know,
(01:07):
your cousin's friend coworker went to Vegas and this happened
to him what's weird about this, Chuck is Snopes is
on the case, and God bless Snopes for doing everything
they do. They said, not only has this happened, this
has happened many times over. This is one of those
rare urban legends that is actually true. That's right. Uh,
(01:29):
And a lot of hotels there are It's sort of
a platform me box spring situation where there is a
cavernous area under the box spring, but above that that
platform that turns out is just right for storing a body. Yeah,
every every criminal knows you want to store a body.
Every motel in America has you covered pretty much. Should
(01:51):
we go through some of these? I think we should,
because again, like this has happened many times um. One
of the first one Snopes talks about happened in two
thousand three at the Capri Motel in downtown Kansas City.
And one of the recurring themes that I've seen, Chuck
is management sometimes won't do anything. They'll be like, sorry, nothing,
you's gonna be done, And this is the only room
we have. You have to stay here, and people will
(02:13):
stay there despite the stench of what turns out to
be a decomposing body, like in this case, Yet a
dead thing is a very specific smell. I would not
for one second even unpack my suitcase and give it
a shot. Right. Well, this guy in Kansas City not
only unpacked a suitcase after complaining about the room and
being told nothing could be done about it. Um, he's
(02:33):
stay there for three nights from July tenth to July
thirte and finally checked out because of the smell. And
I looked on those dates in two thousand three in
Kansas City, it got up to around ninety so I'll
bet it was pretty smelling. And finally housekeeping was like, well,
let's figure out what this is, and they lift up
the mattress and there was a body in the state
(02:54):
of advanced decomposition. July I'm sorry, June, sixty four year
old named saw Hernandez was discovered inside and under her
bed at the Burgundy Motor d I hate calling out
these hotels, but I guess it is what it is,
Room one twelve. Yeah, this gets really specific. Don't say
(03:15):
they're in Atlantic City. In fact, it's Atlantic City, so
it may not even be there at this point. Yeah,
I was wondering that myself, but a German couple, God
bless him. They didn't know any better. They spent the
night there sleeping over his body. They complained to the
manager about the smell. They said, mind galt do something
about it, and that's when they found the body. Yeah,
German tourists are recurring motif in this urban legend come
(03:38):
to life, because in in Florida there were two cases
in Florida alone, and both of them were bodies that
were discovered after complaints from German tourists. So they have
really bad luck with this kind of stuff. Lovely Pasadena, California,
the Wonderful Colorado Boulevard Travel Lodge. In July, a woman
(03:59):
was found under a mattress. They discovered her ten days later,
after guests had complained for several days of a foul odor.
At this point, I would think if someone says there's
a bad smell, I would just immediately assume it's a
body and look. Yeah, you'd think it would be like
a recurring kind of like column that pops up in
(04:19):
like the Hotel Times or you know, Motel Industry News
magazine or something like that, But I guess not, because
it still continues. Um there this The Snopes traced it
all the way back to I think two was there
the first report that they mentioned. I don't know if
it was the first time it's ever happened, but um,
between two and two thousand ten they found ten cases.
(04:43):
And this is not just a body being discovered in
a hotel room. Apparently that happens multiple times a day,
every day everywhere in the world. I guess from what
this looks like. But what Snopes is saying is like, no,
we got to stick to the urban legend where somebody
the body was discovered because somebody slept above it overnight.
And at least ten times between eighty two and two
(05:06):
and ten that happened. Yeah, and that's you know that
cut it off. Like you said in two thousand and ten,
if you just google a dead body hotel mattress, that
happens a lot. Still. Yeah, there was there was one
then Austin last year, one the year before, somewhere else
I can't remember, but they're kind of all over the place.
It seems like an annual event, like the Macy's Thanksgiving
Day parade or something. Yeah, one smells way worse than
(05:30):
the other. I'll let you guess. Yeah, So do you
want to take a break and come back a little bit. Yeah,
we'll come back in a second talk a little bit
about another way that bodies find their way to hotel rooms.
(06:08):
So what we talked about before was specifically, like you said,
the urban legend of bodies under a mattress under a
box spring. Uh. My thought was, like, how are they
getting there? The answer is they're they're all murder cases
general pretty much murder or say like a couple of
people are partying in a hotel and one of them
dies and the other one doesn't want to like get questions,
(06:31):
mattress man stashed the body. Yeah, Because I think there's
two things about this, right, There's people like average people
who check into a hotel. People like you and me,
We stay in hotels. We stay in hotels, right, um,
sleeping unknowingly above just inches above a decomposing body. That's
part one that's horrible. But I think the second part
(06:52):
of it that makes it so horrible is like the
indignity of having your body just stuffed under a mattress
and a CD hotel, you know. Yeah, So I think
those two things combined and the fact that it's actually
happens in real life is just it makes it horrific. Well,
one of the other ways a body very sadly can
be found in a hotel and not under a mattress
(07:12):
is obviously, uh suicide. People apparently check into hotels to
do this a lot for obvious reasons. You wanna you
don't want your family to have a mess necessarily. Another
reason is to avert exposure, maybe to the media. And
I think it's just sort of gets buried in the
news if it's just a random hotel suicide kind of thing.
(07:35):
Casinos apparently had the highest suicide rate, uh, and Las
Vegas has the high suicide rate in the country. I
could see that if like you just lost a bunch
of money, that has something to do with it. They said,
this is not all of it, but a lot of
people show up in Vegas desperate and destitute, you know,
trying to gamble their way back to you know, not
(07:55):
necessarily even prosperity. Oh man, that's a sad scene you
just painted. Yeah, but you were joking in the thing
about it being In the hotel industry, there was an
article called how to Properly respond to a guest death
in your Hotel published in a journal for hotel managers
that I found, and they said a big thing in
Vegas is they don't and most big hotels now don't
(08:17):
let you just open the windows, but a lot of
them do have balcony. Still Vegas they don't even have
balconies because of the suicide problem. So they said that
leads some people to make a final leap, like in
an atrium style lobby. And he says in this article
that hotel managers should keep a very large, dark colored
(08:37):
tarp made of impermeable material on hand and available at
all times, just so you can run out there very
quickly and covered that mess up. So, but not only
the mess it's really dangerous. I mean people walk through atrium. Yeah,
that's really irresponsible. Yeah, you could land on someone obviously. Yeah,
and I'm imagine that would probably kill both people. Yes,
(09:00):
I would think so too. Uh. And you know, we
did an episode on crime scene clean up times times
out of a hundred. That's what's going on here. If
something happens in a hotel room. There's a guy in
a San Francisco based company called crime Scene Cleaners that
he said that hotel chains are as big as clients
and that suicide cleanups is most of his business. I mean,
(09:22):
it definitely makes sense in a very grizzly way, like
not wanting to put your family through that, but unfortunately
you're putting some housekeeper through it. Yeah. The good news
is is that almost everything is is thrown away. That
they're not just like pull the sheets and we'll you know,
watch them. They're like this killo because still mostly good. Yeah,
they like they don't rip up the part of the
(09:43):
carpet that's stayed. They kind of gut the place basically,
sometimes even the dry wall. They get rid of all
the clock, radio and everything. Because they were like, if
there's a little tiny piece of brain that you don't
notice on something that heats up like the electricity, that'll stink.
Plus plus it could be haunted. Now it's obviously haunted.
(10:05):
But those are in like decent hotels that uh you know,
even like kind of cruddy hotel chains. I think still
do a good job. That. The scary part is if
it happens in a really not great place. Because there's
a Reddit thread called tails from the front Desk. Oh,
I gotta get on that where No, don't do it, dude,
You'll never tour again. You'll never leave your house. Because
(10:27):
these are all insider stories. And this one guy was like, yeah, guy,
uh died by suicide on my shift. The owner found
out how much it costs for a professional cleanup, and
he said to flip the mattress. No, yes, no they
ever say where they worked. I don't know, anonymous. I
(10:47):
think it's probably this one was anonymous man. This is
just a hotel house cleaner. Um. And the other thing, too,
is I guess we can close with is when people
decide to do this, oftentimes they pick like the best room,
the nicest, sweet because you don't have to pay for it. Sure, yeah, yeah,
that's that's so. Don't think if you're getting the high
(11:08):
Roller suite that that room is safe from ghosts. Right. Wow,
that's something else, Chuck, you really brought it. Thank you. Well.
Since Chuck brought it and we're out of info, that's
it for short Stuff. So if short Stuff is out,
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's
How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
(11:31):
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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