September 13, 2023 • 39 mins
We got to stay at and investigate one of the most haunted hotels in all of the United States. The Menger in downtown San Antonio, Texas. This hotel has more that 30 spirits who reside in its haunted halls and we tried to figure out which ones we could speak with. On this part 1 we will go through some of the history and ghost stories surrounding this historic property. Special thanks to The Manger and 1859 Historic Hotels for helping us make this episode happen.
All of our links:
https://linktr.ee/UnrefinedPodcast
All of our links:
https://linktr.ee/UnrefinedPodcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey guys, it's BJ. Beforewe get into this next episode of Unrefined
for you, we're going to heara word from our friend at the paranorm
Girl podcast. How much do youreally know about the paranormal? Can it
ever truly be explained or understood?Many say no, I say bet Hi.
I'm Kristen, host of the paranormGirl podcast. My show is a
(00:20):
bingeworthy, immersive education of the paranormal. Each season, we explore all aspects
and angles of a supernatural topic,unraveling its mystery, one fact, theory,
or personal story at a time.Overcome your fear, celebrate the unknown,
and arrive at a well informed understandingby catching new episodes of paranorm Girl
anywhere you get your podcasts. Heyguys, it's BJ, and you are
(00:44):
about to dive into part one ofour show all about the Manger Hotel in
downtown San Antonio, Texas. Wehad so much information to bring to the
table for you that we had tobreak it up into two parts. So
sit back, relax, and enjoyPart one of the haunted and historic Manger
Hotel. All right, everybody,welcome back from another episode of Unrefined.
(01:15):
BJ is my name with me asalways is Mitra, and thank you so
much for joining us. And incase you were wondering, Yes, new
episodes every Wednesday, and you cankeep up with everything that's going on with
us by heading over to the descriptionin this podcast and you can visit all
of our links in there to followus on social media, and you know
(01:38):
all the other things that are withinthose links that you want to get to,
including the sponsor of this episode,the Black Stuff. And if you
would like to get fifteen percent offyour first order of that handmade soap,
which I really really love, allyou have to do is use promo code
Unrefined fifteen percent off. And youcan smell the way that we smell,
(02:01):
because that's yeah, well and youtoo, you've been you can smell like
both of us. Think about uswhen you're in the shower. Okay,
how about that, touching yourself inthe shower, think about bj both of
us at there. It's like asandwich and unrefined sandwich. And so I'll
(02:23):
soap up the back and you couldsoap up the front. How about that.
Okay, there you are, we'regonna do that. We'll rub soap
on our body and then up anddown on somebody else. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, exactly. Nice image.Yeah, the soap guys, because
that's what you want from us,you know it is. So anyway,
again, thank you for joining uson this episode, episode number two hundred
(02:46):
and ten of Unrefined. So,man, I had to tell you it
has been wild. Recording this onFriday night, September eighth, right now,
just so everybody knows, the stormsthat are happening here in upstate New
York, particularly my area in Albany, have been absolutely insane. There has
(03:07):
been constant thunder for the entire evening. There's been big lightning strikes. The
amount of rain that we're getting hasbeen insane. And prior we could get
rain here are lucky. You don'tget that. But man, so anyway,
I just want to let anybody know, like, if something happens during
this episode, then it's because ofthat, just so everybody is aware there
(03:31):
are some pretty wild storms going onhere in upstate New York. Right but
I wish we could have a hurricanejust pushed through. There's one hundred and
six today in September, just acategory one. Maybe we just need some
slight flooding. Nobody needs to die, yeah, that's always a bonus.
(03:53):
Also shout out to our shout outto our friend Josie. She is online
under the weird History gal over onInstagram, and I believe TikTok too.
I'm wearing her shirt on this episodetonight and you can get them too.
She has them for sale. Shesent both of us the shirts. I
(04:15):
had her send it just just tome here in Albany. So Meet is
going to be here at the endof the month and I will give her
her shirt and she'll be able toput it on too. But as you
could be as cool as me.No, no, no, you can
try. You can try, butI don't know. You can try.
You have a cool you have acool dress on right now. Though you
have a dress on. See itthough, Yeah, you can't see the
(04:39):
white ghosts and everything. It's toolight. It's too light, pink and
white. Well, I'm sure thatthere'll be other things that we do where
you will be able to see this. But Meat's got a really cute little
dress on that has ghosts all overit and everything. Because guess what,
guys, you know what it's.It's it's officially spooky season, and that's
how it's cool though it's just ghostson a pink dress. I can wear
(05:01):
this twenty four seven, twenty fourseven, no matter what, I know,
without getting strange looks, or maybethey still would. It's not like
I can walk around with a JackLaner on my I thought you were gonna
say on your head at first,and I was like, you probably couldn't
walk around with the Jack lann onyour head. You would get strange looks
for that, you know. Ihave seen a lot more people in day
(05:25):
to day life wearing spooky style clothingrecently, so I think that it's totally
appropriate and it's coming acceptable. Ithink so people are embracing it and it's
pretty cool. So I say,I say, carry on with your spooky
selves, guys. Also, justa reminder to the audience to put it
down on your calendar right now.November fourth, we're gonna be doing a
(05:48):
little ghost hunting in Saint Louis atthe Saint Louis Haunted Mansion. I'm going
to have other details on that comingfor you very very soon. I'm on
a planning call with that, probablyin the next couple a day or so,
and I'll have more information for youby the next episode. By the
next episode should have a lot moreinformation on that, but just mark it
(06:09):
down if you want to join usin Saint Louis November fourth, And if
you're listening in Saint Louis, Ihope to see you there. It's gonna
be a lot of fun with Nicoleand her crew at the Saint Louis Haunted
Mansion. Anyway, let's take atrip to San Antonio, Texas meture.
I know that's pretty far for you, but I think that you can make
it. Yeah, right now,you're already there. Wow, I mean,
(06:32):
get me out of this heat hellhole. Yeah. Yeah, you're
living the devil's butt hole right now. Basically, that's what I heared.
Yeah, just blew his ass,fart all over My whole house just shook
from thunder. I'm not even joking, right, I know, I don't
(06:54):
believe that it didn't really happen.It's incredible. It's like, it's just
it's wild anyway, rubbing it inbecause I know you want you want it,
and I have it, and it'slike and it's just I'm sorry.
That's how it is anyway, allright, So listen, let's get into
this episode, guys, let's pastAugust. We got to do something really
really cool giant bucket list item forus, and that is we got to
(07:18):
explore, stay at and investigate thehaunted and historic Manger Hotel in downtown San
Antonio. It sits right next tothe Alamo. It is just one of
the most beautiful properties that you couldever be on as far as like orgos,
(07:40):
the history of it is amazing.We'll go through that. Definitely my
favorite hotel we've stayed at. Ohyeah, for sure, Yeah, I
love it. It's so beautiful.Both lobbies they have like a Victorian lobby
and then they have a lobby fromthe nineteen forties and both are so beautiful.
They really are. And they've donea lot to keep that original look
(08:03):
going and they've they've maintained it throughyou know, you know obviously like the
a lot of the furniture there too, is you know, pretty I want
to I want to say original,because the hotel was what made it like
why eighteen fifty nine or something likethat. So we have pieces. They
do have some pieces there, andwe'll go through that because there's some pretty
signature furniture in that hotel that weactually got to see and touch and it
(08:31):
was like it was just like literallylike bucket list stuff like that. You
would just you live for it asa paranormal researcher. You hear the stories,
you see the things about it,and to be able to go in
and do it, it was absolutelyamazing. Before we get into the history
of the Manger Hotel, I justwanted to give a quick shout out to
(08:52):
Sarah and Jane and everybody else thathelped to make this episode possible by working
with us to get stories done,to get you know, connections made in
this and also allowing us to stayat the Manger for a few days and
really get in there and do areally fun and you know, in depth
(09:15):
investigation we really really appreciated. Anda huge thank you to eighteen fifty nine
Historic Hotels or just being so generousto us over these this last what two
years, right, Like, Imean, you have put us at a
couple of really amazing locations. TheManger is the one we always wanted,
so it was nice to finally niceto finally get in there and work with
(09:39):
them on this and hopefully we'll havesome more hotel investigations coming up for you
in the future that we'll be ableto get at too. But anyway,
let's talk about the Manger Metro.What do we got? So I think
it's pronounced Minger, So I knowwe're saying Manger all the time, but
then I hear the employees saying Minger. So I'm not really sure because some
(10:01):
people say Manger and some people sayMingers. So I'm going to go with
the Minger Hotel. It's considered themost haunted hotel, not only in San
Antonio but within the United States.And it sits right next to the albuma
like, right next to it.Yeah, so it's built on top of
the battleground dropped her microphones. Shedid it literally rolled itself to the side.
(10:26):
I love it. I love whenthese things happened. I peek behind
the curtain. Anyway, continue,Okay. So William Minger was a German
immigrant who arrived in San Antonio aroundeighteen forty eight. He got married in
eighteen fifty one to Mary Dunther,and they opened a brewery in eighteen fifty
five known as the Western Company,and it was the first commercial brewery in
(10:48):
Texas. So the Mingers were sosuccessful in selling beer that they ventured into
the hotel business. Now Mary Mingerbefore she got married, she had been
pre obviously married and had children,and she was actually running a boarding house,
so she had some experience and Iguess like the service industry we would
(11:09):
call it now, doing hotel typestuff. So the original hotel was built
like within or next to the brewery, I guess in eighteen fifty nine.
It was two stories and had fiftyrooms, and their hotel was booked up
every night, so much so thatwithin seven months after opening, an additional
(11:31):
fifty rooms were built on because theywere just you know, wild, just
killing it in the hotel business.Hey, we were there. It was
busy while we were there too.There was a lot of guests. Yeah.
What blows my mind is that.Okay, he in eighteen forty eight
and ten years later he's just likekilling it in the business, you know,
like just doing everything. I'm like, nobody can do that today anymore.
Like you can't just open a hotelor a business or do anything anymore.
(11:54):
He lived me depressed. It isdepressing. It is so. The
Minger Hotel was also known for likeit's exquisite cuisine. Thanks to Mary,
she created the menus and only boughtthe best ingredients, she prepared the food,
and she served it at the ColonialRoom restaurant where you can still have
(12:16):
a delicious meal, which we did. We had and I know we mentioned
it before, but we had theamazing breakfast buffet and it's delicious, and
the room is just gorgeous, thegorgeous Victorian room with these beautiful white columns
and it's like blue and there's thishuge fireplace in the back. So it's
amazing looking. And you don't haveto beat a hotel guests to have that
breakfast. You can go there.Go there. Yeah, it's only on
(12:39):
the weekends too, guys, sojust be prepared. That breakfast buffet is
only on the weekends. And theyhave treasure chest full of bacon that we
found an amazing everything's good there.Yeah. The Colonial Room also has its
own get ghost. The story goesa little girl was trampled to death by
a horse outside of the restaurant,and now her spirit hangs around the Colonial
(13:01):
Room and in the kitchen, theback kitchen area. Yeah. I don't
know her name. I don't knowif anyone knows her name, but she
will whisper your name in your earwhile you're eating, which is creepy.
We did not hear that what wewere eating. We were too busy,
like shoving food in our faces.No, And I believe when we were
talking to Angela, she said thatthat room is a little creepy when you're
(13:26):
in there alone by yourself. Yes, so yeah, Angela was great,
by the way. She gave usan entire tour of the entire the entire
hotel. It was. It wasreally good. And she's worked there for
a long time. And I thinkbelieve that she is in the food and
beverage industry at the hotel, soshe does spend a lot of time in
(13:48):
there. And she said that there'squite a few places in the hotel and
a lot of people don't want togo over there. Yeah, at night,
in the Colonial Room. So butyou know what, it's closed at
night. It's only open for breakfastand lunch, right, yeah, correct,
Yeah, there's no dinner. Soanother area, like you have to
see right outside of the Colonial Roomrestaurant is this huge Victorian lobby and it's
(14:13):
just gorgeous and beautiful. Now thatis not actually original to the hotel,
which I always thought it was.And we Angela, yeah, that is
where the bar used to be,the Whole Manger Bar, and it was
a huge bar and it took upthat entire area. The bar was modeled
after the House of Lords in London, and so it's all wood, it's
all super ornate. It was twostories. They eventually moved it to the
(14:39):
exact opposite side of the hotel,and I believe Angela said that it moved
several times at different locations, andnow it's ended up on the exact opposite
side. It's not as big asit was before, but all the wood
and everything you see the stairs leadingup to yeah, it's all that is
original stuff. So from where thekitchens are in the Colonial room to the
(15:03):
Victorian lobby that you see when youwalk in, and all the ways out
to the city, there was thesetunnels underground and those were used to brew
the beer. The German logger alsorumored to be very creepy and possibly haunted
those tunnels, which I didn't knowthere were tunnels under there. That was
the first time for me to careabout tunnels being under there. I swear
(15:24):
to God, every every city wego to, they talk about there being
some sort of tunnel system under thecity. So I mean, I guess
it makes sense. I mean todo things or like for beer, because
they were making lagger and it's hotand they needed to brew the beer somewhere,
right, So and she also says, I believe she said she had
never been there, but she hadheard that there was like kind of like
(15:46):
gail cells under the tunnels, andsupposedly Geronimo was holed in one of them
before being moved to the quadrangle atFort sam Houston, where he was held
for a while. And just incase anyone doesn't know who was he was
apache chief who resisted and fought againstthe colonization of their lands, and he
(16:07):
was the last to surrender, sojust in case, Like I know,
people hear that name, but sometimesthey forget that these were real people.
It wasn't something made up fictional personGeronimo. Like people jumping out of the
plane, like what are you talkingabout? Which I looked that up too.
Why do people say Geronimo when they'rejumping out? And it happened in
the nineteen There was a film fromthe nineteen thirties and this I believe it
(16:32):
was in the forties that this airmenwere watching this movie and before they were
the next day they were going tobe doing their training to the paratroopers,
they were going to be doing theirtraining, and they had to say their
name as they jump out, andthey were messing around with this guy at
(16:52):
the movie. They were watching thismovie about Geronimo. I can probably find
what the movie was, but itwas in nineteen four when this happened at
Fort Benny and okay, the moviewas called Geronimo from nineteen thirty nine.
Okay, Yeah, So after themovie, Private Aubrey Everhart boasted that he
wasn't scared of jumping. So hisfellow soldiers kind of teased him for bragging
(17:15):
and said he would forget his nameas he went out the door, because
you're supposed to call your name asyou off the door. So when he
went up it was his time tojump out. Instead of saying his name,
to kind of like stick it tothem, he says Geronimo and jumped
out. They would watched the movieGeronimo the night before, so that just
became like a tradition, because Ithink like a military, they like every
(17:37):
little thing becomes a tradition, youknow. So then everybody starts saying Geronimo
when you jump off something or dosomething. Yeah, that was that was
way off track. Back, we'regetting back, getting back to the Manger
Bar. It is well known asthe place where Teddy Roosevelt recruited men who
would make up the rough writers andthese were voluntary calvary during the Spanish American
(18:04):
War in eighteen ninety eight. Andthe Spanish American War was the US was
opposed to Spain colonizing Cuba, sothey were just going to help Cuba gain
their independence. And Roosevelt recruited themen from these warm climates like Arizona,
New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texasbecause they figured they could deal with the
hot weather like better in Cuba becausethey live in a hot climate. And
(18:27):
that was the thinking. No,everybody co wracked, right, He's correct.
So Teddy Roosevelt ghost is said tohaunt the Manga Bar. Now it's
the upstairs is where he recruited themen. So if you're in the bar,
you go upstairs. It's very littleupstairs area, like height wise.
(18:48):
BJ was literally scraping his head againstthe ceiling. But it's really cool.
I actually like it up there.We drink. I want to go up
there always because it's like it iscool. Yeah, it's very cool.
Only bad thing is if you're drinking. Those stairs are very steep. He's
very scary, yeah, but they'revery narrow, so I mean, you're
(19:10):
just gonna maybe fall and bash yourselfside to side. I think we saw
somebody fault. Did we see her? Like we did hurt her? And
I liked was snickering, but Ididn't want to turn and look, so
because that's your response hilarious, Ididn't care if she was hurt or something.
I was gonna laugh at her privately. Right. We didn't see Teddy
Roosevelt, by the way, itdid not, but apparently reports online people
(19:33):
seeing him still trying to recruit men. But to me, it seems like
it's kind of a residual haunting,like the leftover energy these Teddy's ghost is
pretty much all over the place,right, Yeah, at the cliff House
in Colorado, He's at the warRoom in Albany. It makes the round,
so I'm thinking he's got some residualenergy everywhere. And like I said,
(19:55):
the Manger Bar is now located onthe opposite side of where it was,
but it's all original wood and it'slike it's a beautiful bar, it's
got something it's really cool bullet holesin it. It doesn't bullet holes in
it, which is really yeah.You know, I don't know why,
but seeing bullet holes, it's alwayslike, look at that as bullet holes.
Like when I went to the HotCrispy oil factory here in Albany and
(20:18):
there was like a bulletproof glass thathad bullet holes in it, like where
somebody had shot at it. Iwas like, that's awesome. And the
guy's like it you think so?And I was like, well, maybe
not for the person on the otherside of the glass, Yeah, right,
recent was that? Yeah so?And I just love that bar.
And I don't know how to explainit, but I feel like you can
feel the history there, you know, like you feel that it's like old.
(20:41):
And I think it's just because Imean, maybe the energy, but
I think it's just it's just likeall that wood, you know what I
mean, Like it just feels youdon't see like that anymore, you know,
And you walk like saloon doors togo in from the hotel side,
which is really awesome. You know. I just wish that as you were
going through, like you push throughthe doors and there was some guy sitting
(21:02):
there in like a bowler derby playingthe piano or something like that. That
would really get Sam. Yeah,that would really that would like really like
just enhance the atmosphere, I think. Yeah, And you don't have to
be I guess at the hotel toenjoy the bargain. Yeah. No.
And you can enter from the outside, yes, or you can enter within
the hotel. I suggest within thehotel because then you can walk through the
hotel and see it. So yeah, yes, And after you've had your
(21:27):
drinks, head next door to mangaritatacos, which we did, and I
can't remember which tacos we had,but they were had the one that was
the one that was made after theone that was named after Sally White,
is what the that's right? Yeah, I can't remember the name of it.
I'm looking it up right now.But yeah, no, you go
(21:51):
go say what you're saying. Oh, I would just say. We also
had a frozen margarita, which wasgreat, Yes, very very good.
So go drink your face off atthe bar and then go and I and
I had like so on that onthat frozen margarita that I had at Mangarita
Tacos. By the way, theyasked if I wanted assaulted rim or if
I wanted or if I wanted thewas it tahm? Is that how you
(22:14):
say it? Yeah, Jean orwhatever? It is the the spicy thing.
I got that on the rim ofit, and it was really good.
I got I got two, Uh, I got two tacos while I
was there. The first one Igot was I got the I got the
the San Antonio, which was reallyreally good. It had it was beef
barbicoa and so that was awesome.And then I got a second taco called
(22:38):
the Sally White and that's a chickentaco and it's named after Sally White,
who is you know, pretty famousfor you know, being somebody who wants
the anger. So we'll get intothat, we will. But yeah,
both of those tacos were absolutely delicious. I would have to say, like
we have now in the history ofthis show and exploring downtown San Antonio,
(23:03):
Mangarita Tacos one the best tacos thatI've had in downtown San Antonio, like
without a doubt, and we havequite a few, quite a few.
Yeah, So anyway, go visitmangarita tacos, go to the Manger Bar,
go to the Colonial Room. There'sa lot of really cool things that
you can do while you're down there. But anyway, continue Wan meetre So
(23:26):
the Mangers. The Mingers were veryactive in the community. Mary Minger lobby
for the US Postal Service to cometo San Antonio, which they did,
and they they're big, huge buildingis kind of somewhat close to where the
hotel is. And William Minger broughtthe first firehouse to San Antonio, where
he served as the first fire captain. The firehouse is now a museum and
(23:49):
side note, also haunted, butthat's like another show. Yeah. Two
of the most well known Minger Hotelghosts or what we Sally White and Richard
King, and we're going to talkabout these two. Sally White was a
mixed race chambermaid working at the hotel. She was in an abusive relationship with
(24:11):
her common law husband, Henry.Henry accused her of cheating and kind of
chased her down and shot her outsidethe Minger. Sally was brought inside into
a room to try to like,you know, save her life, but
she died a few days later.The Mangers paid for a funeral service because
she was, you know, wellloved at the hotel. They said they
(24:33):
still have her funeral like note ondisplay at the miner, but we could
not see it. It was lookedfor it. It was it's not the
funeral. It's not a note fromthe funeral. It's like the literal like
receipt that shows that they yeah,like that's what they called it, a
note like, oh, I didn'tknow. Okay, I thought you meant
like a hard things. So wedidn't find it. We looked all through
(24:56):
the cases. I didn't see it. Yeah, we didn't see anything there.
I have all these display k inthe lobby of Sala, a lot
of the antiques and stuff that theyhave. We went with our EMF to
see if anything would go off becauseat the Cliffhouse like that doll was going
off like crazy. I was like, please something go off. Well too,
so yeah nothing went off. Yeah, no haunted objects that we are
(25:18):
aware of that in our in ourstay. So so, Sally's ghost has
been seen walking the whole ways.She wears a headband and she's got like
her old chambermaid dressed uniform on.She's often seen carrying towels or blankets,
and it just makes me sad becausethe poor lady gets gunned down and she
still has to go to work,I know, every single day, just
(25:41):
to be Sally White. Yeah,just chill out. Took so many pictures
up and on the hallways. Yeah, like so many. I was like,
I am going to get an image, like multiple images, and I'm
just like in a row ten timesall throughout the hotel, different days,
same locations, desperate to get something. Actually, we got so many pictures
(26:02):
in that hall no pictures. Wedid tons of pictures, and all the
haunted mirrors so many every day everytime we would go up to the mirror,
multiple pictures and like nothing. Iwas like, come on, because
there's a lot of mirrors with peoplegetting faces in them. Yes, let
me tell you we got nothing.So nope, we've made me. You
know. A couple of employees tellus that they have seen like people walking
(26:26):
around in the hallways with like alldresses on, and they're like they just
kind of spotted out of the cornerof their eye and then they turned and
then it's gone, yeah, likeboy, that is just like that that's
something else, you know, tobe able to see that. I wish,
I wish. We just gotta gotlike a glimpse of something in a
picture. But nothing, no nothing, nope, no no video or photo
(26:48):
evidence of anything. So the otherinfamous ghosts is Richard King. Yeah,
so Richard King was a captain ofa riverboat also owned the riverboat for which
but he really ever says they alwayscall him captain, but that he's a
captain river boat and like it wasn'tjust captain. He like owned this river
boat from CEO. Yeah, hewas a Confederate. He was in He
(27:17):
moved to Texas and he just startedbuying up all this land kind of like
in the souther like more south thanSan Antonio, like in the Corpus area
and the Oasis River area. Kindof just buying up all this land.
And he was buying it up withthe money from his river boat firm or
(27:38):
whatever, and he was just buyingit all up. He also had a
he loves Antonio because it's a bigcity, right and where he's buying the
land, there's like nothing there.He's just buying all this land. He's
he's cattle and ranch you know thinghe's doing. They bred horses, quarter
horses. I don't really understand.But I feel like I was reading about
it, and I'm like, I'mtrying to at the history off of this
(28:00):
big ranchets which is called the KingRanch. Right, it's still in existence
today. It's the biggest ranch inthe United States. It's bigger than Rhode
Island. It's humongous. They docattle, they do all kinds of things.
What was that We saw their truckswhile we were driving, remember,
yeah, the Ford King Ranches.Yeah, so it's a huge ranch.
(28:21):
It's a huge deal. And Iwas like, Okay, what are they
like famous for before? Like thecat like just catles. I guess they
bred like quarter horses, like different, Like they made up a breed of
quarter horse. I don't I didn'treally understand. I feel like the information
online was not very good for KingRanch, even from their website. I'm
just say anything about the chicken,I mean, they made up the chicken.
(28:42):
I believe his wife, I thinkher name was Henrietta King. She
was responsible for that King Ranch chickenrecipe. I guess. I don't know.
Yeah, don't quote me on that. A lot of history in there,
but oh, okay, so he'she was a big deal. He
is this huge wealthy man. He'slike superch He comes to San Antonio all
the time. He stays with theMinger and he has his own suite and
(29:04):
the suite is huge. You canstay at the suite now, the King
Ranch suite. It's not nearly asbig as it used to be. It
basically used to be a whole halfof that second floor with the balcony,
and now it's just like a livingroom and it's kind of a miniature hallway
with the bathroom and then the bedroom. Yeah, so that's what's in existence
(29:26):
now. And you can go thereand you know, have the room which
is his original bed is in thereand everything. So he loved the Minger
so much. Like I said,he was in poor health. He goes
to San Antonio to visitess doctors,doctors like you're dying. So he decides,
Okay, I'm staying here. I'mnot going back to my ranch.
(29:48):
I love San Antonio, I lovethe Minger, and I'm going to stay
here and die in this hotel inthis room. And he did. He
did all his business from there,He did all his wills and last rites.
He visit with his family, saidall his goodbye and he lived the
last few months of his life there. They believe now he died of stommit
cancer. So anyways, the bedthat he died in is still there in
(30:11):
the room, and just his originalbed. And I believe some of that
furniture because it was antique and Icouldn't find any information on it, but
it had to have been original aswell to the room for sure. The
couch in the bedroom and some ofthose other pieces in there. I don't
know about the living room furniture,but I'm going to guess the desk and
that other mirror were probably original tothe room too. Yeah, So that
(30:33):
couch in the living room, likethe parlor, I don't know. I
feel like that might be a reproduction. Okay, okay, as you saw
what the couch looked like in thebedroom, he saw how low that was
to the ground, and that othercouch in the living room was very That
was a small couch in the bedroom. It was a tiny little couch,
super tiny, like it was sosuper were smaller back then, Like I
(30:56):
was sitting on it, as likemy knees were like up to my chest
when I sat down. I waslike, what it's like a little bitty
CETI. Yeah, just so,so the bed is original, and we're
talking like the bed frame. Okay, we're all talking about the actual mattress.
Okay, they throw out the mattress. That's so discussing new mattress,
new pillows, original bed frame.It's like a four poster bed with like
(31:19):
a canopy on top. It's reallybeautiful. What's amazing. It's how great
it looks for being so old.No, Like, craftsmanship was amazing back.
Yeah, so we were very luckyto get access to the King Ranch
Room. Now, we did notstay in the King Ranch Room, but
they gave us the keys to theroom and we had what three days to
(31:41):
go in there? Yeah, wehad three what we wanted. It was
amazing, like and it's so andit's so amazing because I remember when they
were talking to us and they werelike, well, what do you need
from us? And I said,well, we just need a place to
stay, and you know, ifyou could, you know, let us
see inside of the King Ranch suite, that would be pretty amazing. And
they're like, oh, okay,So we get there and I'm not expecting
anything other than you know, Iknew that, get at it, right,
(32:06):
I knew Angela was going to begiving us a tour, and I
knew that, you know, wehad a room to stay in and that
they said that we could like walkaround and like do some various filming and
stuff like that. And so they'rechecking us in and they were like,
you have We're giving you access forthe entire weekend. We've closed the King
Ranch suite so that you can goin there and do your investigation. And
(32:27):
I was like what what? Yeah? That was like, it was so
awesome. It was a Christmas present. Yeah, it was. It was
great. And then it was funnytoo because we were meeting up with our
friends Aaron and Sarah from Hay Strangeness. If you guys aren't checking out their
podcast or following them, make sureto do so. But we were meeting
up with them one of the nightsand we were going to go get dinner
(32:49):
and drinks. Okay, they're inSan Antonio as well, and uh,
I was like I texted Aaron andI said, so, how would you
like to go inside of the KingRanch? And he goes, is that
an option? And I said itis? Now. They gave us the
keys, baby, and so yeah, that was a lot of fun to
go in there with them too.So the King Ranch Room Haunted by Richard
(33:15):
King. Those the stories, someof the stories coming out of what to
expect in the room or what weread online and what people in the hotel
told this. One was the cigarsmoke. He would smell intermittent cigar smoke
because he was a scar smoker.Other things was seeing his apparition walk through
(33:35):
walls. Now his room has beenremodeled and split up, so of course
he'd be walking to another side ofwhat originally used to be his room,
going through a wall right and anotherone. We're like orbs in the living
room where the couch and stuck were, so we did not see his ghost.
We did not see orbs, butnot the first time we went in
(34:00):
the room, but I think itwas the second or the third time we
walked in the room and we werehit with a cigar smell all of a
sudden, it was like you it'sit was like someone was smoking a cigar
and took it out and puffed thesmoke to our faces. Like that's what
it was like. It was thereand then it was it was gone.
(34:22):
It was really weird, and Iwasn't because people say those things that I'm
my uh yeah, I guess,you know. Every I feel like we're
such like dickheads in the parallel becauselike some of it will be like yeah
I felt this, and we're like, oh did you and then we go
in and we're like, oh mygod, like I feel, you know,
like it's like it's in that room. So in general, the King
(34:43):
Ranch sweet there wasn't anything negative oranything in there, but it was uninviting.
I'll say I felt like did notwant us stare. It just was
not an inviting place. And wehad another room on a different floor it
was perfectly fine, perfectly inviting,but when you went in that King Ranch
room, it just felt like noinviting, Like is what you're there?
(35:05):
Our room was on the same floor, it was on a second Oh oh
that's right, that's right. Yeah, it was just up and around the
corner and everything. Each can weare Can we talk about the room that's
next to the King Ranch Yes,let me see, I have it in
my notes because we talked about it. Ye have it in a different section
on my notes from make Meet Jomp. But uh, what was next to
(35:27):
the King Ranch suite which used tobe part of the original suite was the
Renaissance Room, and next to theRenaissance Room is another suite called the Roy
Rogers Suite. Yes, so yeah, what we learned and I'm looking for
it in my notes that first ofall, I didn't realize that it was
(35:49):
split up and that was the RoyRoger Suite. We actually talked to a
couple at the Manger Bar who wasstaying at the Roy Roger Suite who had
some paranormal activity and we were like, oh wow, and they were talking.
They literally wanted to come to thehotel. They were from McAllen a
love haunted history stuff. The guywas a is a home builder. Yeah,
(36:10):
he's a concert for their for hissixtieth birth sixtieth birthday. They were
there celebrating. They were really awesome, fun couple and I wish I remember
their names. We're all three gates. Yeah. We had drinks with them
at the Manger Bar and everything,and it was it was really just such
a great experience, really fun.Yeah. They were he collects like old
jew boxes and fixes them up.Yeah, they were showing us all the
(36:32):
picture of this old jew boxes andhe fixes up and everything. And I
was like that was a fun hobby. They were so cool. So they
were saying in the Roy Rogers Roomand she had filmed because they wanted to
stay in this haunted room, andshe had filmed, uh, some things
in the room to just to documentsome things. You know, she didn't
catch her goats. And when shestarted filming, I guess the first time,
(36:53):
all of a sudden, the picturejust swing like upside down, and
she doesn't know why it did.She was showing us a and then she's
showing us all the other video everything'sfine, but this one video, all
of a sudden that it looks likethe camera just rotates and she goes,
I wasn't doing anything. I don'tunderstand why it recorded this way, and
we're like, oh, that's weird. We didn't know this at the time.
We found this out later that eveningwhen we spoke to I think it
(37:15):
was a hotel security, yes,that was making the rounds and we were
able to talk to her, andshe took us to the Renaissance Room,
which is right next to the KingRanch, which she used to be part
of the King Ranch original room andRoy Rogers Room is right next to it,
and she told us when we werewalking around the Renaissance room that when
(37:37):
Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers was anactor and a singer cowboy in like the
nineteen thirties, fifty sixty seventies,right, he was really popular. As
he understands. You've probably seen twoWhat was that he has? He has
restaurants too, Oh yeah that theyYeah, so he would not stay anywhere
(38:00):
unless his horse, Trigger was allowedto come with him. Yeah. So
he told the minger, I willonly be here if you make a room
for my horse. And they did. They had this luxury indoor horse stable
for his horse Trigger. That hewould walk up this ramp and his horse
(38:22):
was able to be there, andthen he was in the suite next to
it. And I can't even believethat that was a thing. This room
is huge. It's a they calledit a meeting room, but it was
a huge meeting room like a miniballroom. There's a fireplace there and everything.
It was all for the horse,that's what it was for. So
that was amazing. I wish wewould have known that and we could have
(38:43):
told the people we met at thebar, but that wasn't until like after
we had spoken to them and everythinggetting ready to go back and continue our
investigation stuff. Yeah, so thatwas that was pretty interesting. And the
fact that we could have told them, well, that used to be part
of the King ranch. Sweet andif you are having paranoral activity it maybe
(39:04):
Richard King himself possible, very propible. I sure hope you guys enjoyed going
through the history of the Historic MangerHotel with us. Make sure you're tuned
in. In a couple of days, Part two of the Haunted Historic Manger
Hotel will be live for you,so make sure you're subscribed to Unrefined to
(39:25):
get the latest episodes directly to you.
Hey guys, it's BJ. Beforewe get into this next episode of Unrefined
for you, we're going to heara word from our friend at the paranorm
Girl podcast. How much do youreally know about the paranormal? Can it
ever truly be explained or understood?Many say no, I say bet Hi.
I'm Kristen, host of the paranormGirl podcast. My show is a
(00:20):
bingeworthy, immersive education of the paranormal. Each season, we explore all aspects
and angles of a supernatural topic,unraveling its mystery, one fact, theory,
or personal story at a time.Overcome your fear, celebrate the unknown,
and arrive at a well informed understandingby catching new episodes of paranorm Girl
anywhere you get your podcasts. Heyguys, it's BJ, and you are
(00:44):
about to dive into part one ofour show all about the Manger Hotel in
downtown San Antonio, Texas. Wehad so much information to bring to the
table for you that we had tobreak it up into two parts. So
sit back, relax, and enjoyPart one of the haunted and historic Manger
Hotel. All right, everybody,welcome back from another episode of Unrefined.
(01:15):
BJ is my name with me asalways is Mitra, and thank you so
much for joining us. And incase you were wondering, Yes, new
episodes every Wednesday, and you cankeep up with everything that's going on with
us by heading over to the descriptionin this podcast and you can visit all
of our links in there to followus on social media, and you know
(01:38):
all the other things that are withinthose links that you want to get to,
including the sponsor of this episode,the Black Stuff. And if you
would like to get fifteen percent offyour first order of that handmade soap,
which I really really love, allyou have to do is use promo code
Unrefined fifteen percent off. And youcan smell the way that we smell,
(02:01):
because that's yeah, well and youtoo, you've been you can smell like
both of us. Think about uswhen you're in the shower. Okay,
how about that, touching yourself inthe shower, think about bj both of
us at there. It's like asandwich and unrefined sandwich. And so I'll
(02:23):
soap up the back and you couldsoap up the front. How about that.
Okay, there you are, we'regonna do that. We'll rub soap
on our body and then up anddown on somebody else. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, exactly. Nice image.Yeah, the soap guys, because
that's what you want from us,you know it is. So anyway,
again, thank you for joining uson this episode, episode number two hundred
(02:46):
and ten of Unrefined. So,man, I had to tell you it
has been wild. Recording this onFriday night, September eighth, right now,
just so everybody knows, the stormsthat are happening here in upstate New
York, particularly my area in Albany, have been absolutely insane. There has
(03:07):
been constant thunder for the entire evening. There's been big lightning strikes. The
amount of rain that we're getting hasbeen insane. And prior we could get
rain here are lucky. You don'tget that. But man, so anyway,
I just want to let anybody know, like, if something happens during
this episode, then it's because ofthat, just so everybody is aware there
(03:31):
are some pretty wild storms going onhere in upstate New York. Right but
I wish we could have a hurricanejust pushed through. There's one hundred and
six today in September, just acategory one. Maybe we just need some
slight flooding. Nobody needs to die, yeah, that's always a bonus.
(03:53):
Also shout out to our shout outto our friend Josie. She is online
under the weird History gal over onInstagram, and I believe TikTok too.
I'm wearing her shirt on this episodetonight and you can get them too.
She has them for sale. Shesent both of us the shirts. I
(04:15):
had her send it just just tome here in Albany. So Meet is
going to be here at the endof the month and I will give her
her shirt and she'll be able toput it on too. But as you
could be as cool as me.No, no, no, you can
try. You can try, butI don't know. You can try.
You have a cool you have acool dress on right now. Though you
have a dress on. See itthough, Yeah, you can't see the
(04:39):
white ghosts and everything. It's toolight. It's too light, pink and
white. Well, I'm sure thatthere'll be other things that we do where
you will be able to see this. But Meat's got a really cute little
dress on that has ghosts all overit and everything. Because guess what,
guys, you know what it's.It's it's officially spooky season, and that's
how it's cool though it's just ghostson a pink dress. I can wear
(05:01):
this twenty four seven, twenty fourseven, no matter what, I know,
without getting strange looks, or maybethey still would. It's not like
I can walk around with a JackLaner on my I thought you were gonna
say on your head at first,and I was like, you probably couldn't
walk around with the Jack lann onyour head. You would get strange looks
for that, you know. Ihave seen a lot more people in day
(05:25):
to day life wearing spooky style clothingrecently, so I think that it's totally
appropriate and it's coming acceptable. Ithink so people are embracing it and it's
pretty cool. So I say,I say, carry on with your spooky
selves, guys. Also, justa reminder to the audience to put it
down on your calendar right now.November fourth, we're gonna be doing a
(05:48):
little ghost hunting in Saint Louis atthe Saint Louis Haunted Mansion. I'm going
to have other details on that comingfor you very very soon. I'm on
a planning call with that, probablyin the next couple a day or so,
and I'll have more information for youby the next episode. By the
next episode should have a lot moreinformation on that, but just mark it
(06:09):
down if you want to join usin Saint Louis November fourth, And if
you're listening in Saint Louis, Ihope to see you there. It's gonna
be a lot of fun with Nicoleand her crew at the Saint Louis Haunted
Mansion. Anyway, let's take atrip to San Antonio, Texas meture.
I know that's pretty far for you, but I think that you can make
it. Yeah, right now,you're already there. Wow, I mean,
(06:32):
get me out of this heat hellhole. Yeah. Yeah, you're
living the devil's butt hole right now. Basically, that's what I heared.
Yeah, just blew his ass,fart all over My whole house just shook
from thunder. I'm not even joking, right, I know, I don't
(06:54):
believe that it didn't really happen.It's incredible. It's like, it's just
it's wild anyway, rubbing it inbecause I know you want you want it,
and I have it, and it'slike and it's just I'm sorry.
That's how it is anyway, allright, So listen, let's get into
this episode, guys, let's pastAugust. We got to do something really
really cool giant bucket list item forus, and that is we got to
(07:18):
explore, stay at and investigate thehaunted and historic Manger Hotel in downtown San
Antonio. It sits right next tothe Alamo. It is just one of
the most beautiful properties that you couldever be on as far as like orgos,
(07:40):
the history of it is amazing.We'll go through that. Definitely my
favorite hotel we've stayed at. Ohyeah, for sure, Yeah, I
love it. It's so beautiful.Both lobbies they have like a Victorian lobby
and then they have a lobby fromthe nineteen forties and both are so beautiful.
They really are. And they've donea lot to keep that original look
(08:03):
going and they've they've maintained it throughyou know, you know obviously like the
a lot of the furniture there too, is you know, pretty I want
to I want to say original,because the hotel was what made it like
why eighteen fifty nine or something likethat. So we have pieces. They
do have some pieces there, andwe'll go through that because there's some pretty
signature furniture in that hotel that weactually got to see and touch and it
(08:31):
was like it was just like literallylike bucket list stuff like that. You
would just you live for it asa paranormal researcher. You hear the stories,
you see the things about it,and to be able to go in
and do it, it was absolutelyamazing. Before we get into the history
of the Manger Hotel, I justwanted to give a quick shout out to
(08:52):
Sarah and Jane and everybody else thathelped to make this episode possible by working
with us to get stories done,to get you know, connections made in
this and also allowing us to stayat the Manger for a few days and
really get in there and do areally fun and you know, in depth
(09:15):
investigation we really really appreciated. Anda huge thank you to eighteen fifty nine
Historic Hotels or just being so generousto us over these this last what two
years, right, Like, Imean, you have put us at a
couple of really amazing locations. TheManger is the one we always wanted,
so it was nice to finally niceto finally get in there and work with
(09:39):
them on this and hopefully we'll havesome more hotel investigations coming up for you
in the future that we'll be ableto get at too. But anyway,
let's talk about the Manger Metro.What do we got? So I think
it's pronounced Minger, So I knowwe're saying Manger all the time, but
then I hear the employees saying Minger. So I'm not really sure because some
(10:01):
people say Manger and some people sayMingers. So I'm going to go with
the Minger Hotel. It's considered themost haunted hotel, not only in San
Antonio but within the United States.And it sits right next to the albuma
like, right next to it.Yeah, so it's built on top of
the battleground dropped her microphones. Shedid it literally rolled itself to the side.
(10:26):
I love it. I love whenthese things happened. I peek behind
the curtain. Anyway, continue,Okay. So William Minger was a German
immigrant who arrived in San Antonio aroundeighteen forty eight. He got married in
eighteen fifty one to Mary Dunther,and they opened a brewery in eighteen fifty
five known as the Western Company,and it was the first commercial brewery in
(10:48):
Texas. So the Mingers were sosuccessful in selling beer that they ventured into
the hotel business. Now Mary Mingerbefore she got married, she had been
pre obviously married and had children,and she was actually running a boarding house,
so she had some experience and Iguess like the service industry we would
(11:09):
call it now, doing hotel typestuff. So the original hotel was built
like within or next to the brewery, I guess in eighteen fifty nine.
It was two stories and had fiftyrooms, and their hotel was booked up
every night, so much so thatwithin seven months after opening, an additional
(11:31):
fifty rooms were built on because theywere just you know, wild, just
killing it in the hotel business.Hey, we were there. It was
busy while we were there too.There was a lot of guests. Yeah.
What blows my mind is that.Okay, he in eighteen forty eight
and ten years later he's just likekilling it in the business, you know,
like just doing everything. I'm like, nobody can do that today anymore.
Like you can't just open a hotelor a business or do anything anymore.
(11:54):
He lived me depressed. It isdepressing. It is so. The
Minger Hotel was also known for likeit's exquisite cuisine. Thanks to Mary,
she created the menus and only boughtthe best ingredients, she prepared the food,
and she served it at the ColonialRoom restaurant where you can still have
(12:16):
a delicious meal, which we did. We had and I know we mentioned
it before, but we had theamazing breakfast buffet and it's delicious, and
the room is just gorgeous, thegorgeous Victorian room with these beautiful white columns
and it's like blue and there's thishuge fireplace in the back. So it's
amazing looking. And you don't haveto beat a hotel guests to have that
breakfast. You can go there.Go there. Yeah, it's only on
(12:39):
the weekends too, guys, sojust be prepared. That breakfast buffet is
only on the weekends. And theyhave treasure chest full of bacon that we
found an amazing everything's good there.Yeah. The Colonial Room also has its
own get ghost. The story goesa little girl was trampled to death by
a horse outside of the restaurant,and now her spirit hangs around the Colonial
(13:01):
Room and in the kitchen, theback kitchen area. Yeah. I don't
know her name. I don't knowif anyone knows her name, but she
will whisper your name in your earwhile you're eating, which is creepy.
We did not hear that what wewere eating. We were too busy,
like shoving food in our faces.No, And I believe when we were
talking to Angela, she said thatthat room is a little creepy when you're
(13:26):
in there alone by yourself. Yes, so yeah, Angela was great,
by the way. She gave usan entire tour of the entire the entire
hotel. It was. It wasreally good. And she's worked there for
a long time. And I thinkbelieve that she is in the food and
beverage industry at the hotel, soshe does spend a lot of time in
(13:48):
there. And she said that there'squite a few places in the hotel and
a lot of people don't want togo over there. Yeah, at night,
in the Colonial Room. So butyou know what, it's closed at
night. It's only open for breakfastand lunch, right, yeah, correct,
Yeah, there's no dinner. Soanother area, like you have to
see right outside of the Colonial Roomrestaurant is this huge Victorian lobby and it's
(14:13):
just gorgeous and beautiful. Now thatis not actually original to the hotel,
which I always thought it was.And we Angela, yeah, that is
where the bar used to be,the Whole Manger Bar, and it was
a huge bar and it took upthat entire area. The bar was modeled
after the House of Lords in London, and so it's all wood, it's
all super ornate. It was twostories. They eventually moved it to the
(14:39):
exact opposite side of the hotel,and I believe Angela said that it moved
several times at different locations, andnow it's ended up on the exact opposite
side. It's not as big asit was before, but all the wood
and everything you see the stairs leadingup to yeah, it's all that is
original stuff. So from where thekitchens are in the Colonial room to the
(15:03):
Victorian lobby that you see when youwalk in, and all the ways out
to the city, there was thesetunnels underground and those were used to brew
the beer. The German logger alsorumored to be very creepy and possibly haunted
those tunnels, which I didn't knowthere were tunnels under there. That was
the first time for me to careabout tunnels being under there. I swear
(15:24):
to God, every every city wego to, they talk about there being
some sort of tunnel system under thecity. So I mean, I guess
it makes sense. I mean todo things or like for beer, because
they were making lagger and it's hotand they needed to brew the beer somewhere,
right, So and she also says, I believe she said she had
never been there, but she hadheard that there was like kind of like
(15:46):
gail cells under the tunnels, andsupposedly Geronimo was holed in one of them
before being moved to the quadrangle atFort sam Houston, where he was held
for a while. And just incase anyone doesn't know who was he was
apache chief who resisted and fought againstthe colonization of their lands, and he
(16:07):
was the last to surrender, sojust in case, Like I know,
people hear that name, but sometimesthey forget that these were real people.
It wasn't something made up fictional personGeronimo. Like people jumping out of the
plane, like what are you talkingabout? Which I looked that up too.
Why do people say Geronimo when they'rejumping out? And it happened in
the nineteen There was a film fromthe nineteen thirties and this I believe it
(16:32):
was in the forties that this airmenwere watching this movie and before they were
the next day they were going tobe doing their training to the paratroopers,
they were going to be doing theirtraining, and they had to say their
name as they jump out, andthey were messing around with this guy at
(16:52):
the movie. They were watching thismovie about Geronimo. I can probably find
what the movie was, but itwas in nineteen four when this happened at
Fort Benny and okay, the moviewas called Geronimo from nineteen thirty nine.
Okay, Yeah, So after themovie, Private Aubrey Everhart boasted that he
wasn't scared of jumping. So hisfellow soldiers kind of teased him for bragging
(17:15):
and said he would forget his nameas he went out the door, because
you're supposed to call your name asyou off the door. So when he
went up it was his time tojump out. Instead of saying his name,
to kind of like stick it tothem, he says Geronimo and jumped
out. They would watched the movieGeronimo the night before, so that just
became like a tradition, because Ithink like a military, they like every
(17:37):
little thing becomes a tradition, youknow. So then everybody starts saying Geronimo
when you jump off something or dosomething. Yeah, that was that was
way off track. Back, we'regetting back, getting back to the Manger
Bar. It is well known asthe place where Teddy Roosevelt recruited men who
would make up the rough writers andthese were voluntary calvary during the Spanish American
(18:04):
War in eighteen ninety eight. Andthe Spanish American War was the US was
opposed to Spain colonizing Cuba, sothey were just going to help Cuba gain
their independence. And Roosevelt recruited themen from these warm climates like Arizona,
New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texasbecause they figured they could deal with the
hot weather like better in Cuba becausethey live in a hot climate. And
(18:27):
that was the thinking. No,everybody co wracked, right, He's correct.
So Teddy Roosevelt ghost is said tohaunt the Manga Bar. Now it's
the upstairs is where he recruited themen. So if you're in the bar,
you go upstairs. It's very littleupstairs area, like height wise.
(18:48):
BJ was literally scraping his head againstthe ceiling. But it's really cool.
I actually like it up there.We drink. I want to go up
there always because it's like it iscool. Yeah, it's very cool.
Only bad thing is if you're drinking. Those stairs are very steep. He's
very scary, yeah, but they'revery narrow, so I mean, you're
(19:10):
just gonna maybe fall and bash yourselfside to side. I think we saw
somebody fault. Did we see her? Like we did hurt her? And
I liked was snickering, but Ididn't want to turn and look, so
because that's your response hilarious, Ididn't care if she was hurt or something.
I was gonna laugh at her privately. Right. We didn't see Teddy
Roosevelt, by the way, itdid not, but apparently reports online people
(19:33):
seeing him still trying to recruit men. But to me, it seems like
it's kind of a residual haunting,like the leftover energy these Teddy's ghost is
pretty much all over the place,right, Yeah, at the cliff House
in Colorado, He's at the warRoom in Albany. It makes the round,
so I'm thinking he's got some residualenergy everywhere. And like I said,
(19:55):
the Manger Bar is now located onthe opposite side of where it was,
but it's all original wood and it'slike it's a beautiful bar, it's
got something it's really cool bullet holesin it. It doesn't bullet holes in
it, which is really yeah.You know, I don't know why,
but seeing bullet holes, it's alwayslike, look at that as bullet holes.
Like when I went to the HotCrispy oil factory here in Albany and
(20:18):
there was like a bulletproof glass thathad bullet holes in it, like where
somebody had shot at it. Iwas like, that's awesome. And the
guy's like it you think so?And I was like, well, maybe
not for the person on the otherside of the glass, Yeah, right,
recent was that? Yeah so?And I just love that bar.
And I don't know how to explainit, but I feel like you can
feel the history there, you know, like you feel that it's like old.
(20:41):
And I think it's just because Imean, maybe the energy, but
I think it's just it's just likeall that wood, you know what I
mean, Like it just feels youdon't see like that anymore, you know,
And you walk like saloon doors togo in from the hotel side,
which is really awesome. You know. I just wish that as you were
going through, like you push throughthe doors and there was some guy sitting
(21:02):
there in like a bowler derby playingthe piano or something like that. That
would really get Sam. Yeah,that would really that would like really like
just enhance the atmosphere, I think. Yeah, And you don't have to
be I guess at the hotel toenjoy the bargain. Yeah. No.
And you can enter from the outside, yes, or you can enter within
the hotel. I suggest within thehotel because then you can walk through the
hotel and see it. So yeah, yes, And after you've had your
(21:27):
drinks, head next door to mangaritatacos, which we did, and I
can't remember which tacos we had,but they were had the one that was
the one that was made after theone that was named after Sally White,
is what the that's right? Yeah, I can't remember the name of it.
I'm looking it up right now.But yeah, no, you go
(21:51):
go say what you're saying. Oh, I would just say. We also
had a frozen margarita, which wasgreat, Yes, very very good.
So go drink your face off atthe bar and then go and I and
I had like so on that onthat frozen margarita that I had at Mangarita
Tacos. By the way, theyasked if I wanted assaulted rim or if
I wanted or if I wanted thewas it tahm? Is that how you
(22:14):
say it? Yeah, Jean orwhatever? It is the the spicy thing.
I got that on the rim ofit, and it was really good.
I got I got two, Uh, I got two tacos while I
was there. The first one Igot was I got the I got the
the San Antonio, which was reallyreally good. It had it was beef
barbicoa and so that was awesome.And then I got a second taco called
(22:38):
the Sally White and that's a chickentaco and it's named after Sally White,
who is you know, pretty famousfor you know, being somebody who wants
the anger. So we'll get intothat, we will. But yeah,
both of those tacos were absolutely delicious. I would have to say, like
we have now in the history ofthis show and exploring downtown San Antonio,
(23:03):
Mangarita Tacos one the best tacos thatI've had in downtown San Antonio, like
without a doubt, and we havequite a few, quite a few.
Yeah, So anyway, go visitmangarita tacos, go to the Manger Bar,
go to the Colonial Room. There'sa lot of really cool things that
you can do while you're down there. But anyway, continue Wan meetre So
(23:26):
the Mangers. The Mingers were veryactive in the community. Mary Minger lobby
for the US Postal Service to cometo San Antonio, which they did,
and they they're big, huge buildingis kind of somewhat close to where the
hotel is. And William Minger broughtthe first firehouse to San Antonio, where
he served as the first fire captain. The firehouse is now a museum and
(23:49):
side note, also haunted, butthat's like another show. Yeah. Two
of the most well known Minger Hotelghosts or what we Sally White and Richard
King, and we're going to talkabout these two. Sally White was a
mixed race chambermaid working at the hotel. She was in an abusive relationship with
(24:11):
her common law husband, Henry.Henry accused her of cheating and kind of
chased her down and shot her outsidethe Minger. Sally was brought inside into
a room to try to like,you know, save her life, but
she died a few days later.The Mangers paid for a funeral service because
she was, you know, wellloved at the hotel. They said they
(24:33):
still have her funeral like note ondisplay at the miner, but we could
not see it. It was lookedfor it. It was it's not the
funeral. It's not a note fromthe funeral. It's like the literal like
receipt that shows that they yeah,like that's what they called it, a
note like, oh, I didn'tknow. Okay, I thought you meant
like a hard things. So wedidn't find it. We looked all through
(24:56):
the cases. I didn't see it. Yeah, we didn't see anything there.
I have all these display k inthe lobby of Sala, a lot
of the antiques and stuff that theyhave. We went with our EMF to
see if anything would go off becauseat the Cliffhouse like that doll was going
off like crazy. I was like, please something go off. Well too,
so yeah nothing went off. Yeah, no haunted objects that we are
(25:18):
aware of that in our in ourstay. So so, Sally's ghost has
been seen walking the whole ways.She wears a headband and she's got like
her old chambermaid dressed uniform on.She's often seen carrying towels or blankets,
and it just makes me sad becausethe poor lady gets gunned down and she
still has to go to work,I know, every single day, just
(25:41):
to be Sally White. Yeah,just chill out. Took so many pictures
up and on the hallways. Yeah, like so many. I was like,
I am going to get an image, like multiple images, and I'm
just like in a row ten timesall throughout the hotel, different days,
same locations, desperate to get something. Actually, we got so many pictures
(26:02):
in that hall no pictures. Wedid tons of pictures, and all the
haunted mirrors so many every day everytime we would go up to the mirror,
multiple pictures and like nothing. Iwas like, come on, because
there's a lot of mirrors with peoplegetting faces in them. Yes, let
me tell you we got nothing.So nope, we've made me. You
know. A couple of employees tellus that they have seen like people walking
(26:26):
around in the hallways with like alldresses on, and they're like they just
kind of spotted out of the cornerof their eye and then they turned and
then it's gone, yeah, likeboy, that is just like that that's
something else, you know, tobe able to see that. I wish,
I wish. We just gotta gotlike a glimpse of something in a
picture. But nothing, no nothing, nope, no no video or photo
(26:48):
evidence of anything. So the otherinfamous ghosts is Richard King. Yeah,
so Richard King was a captain ofa riverboat also owned the riverboat for which
but he really ever says they alwayscall him captain, but that he's a
captain river boat and like it wasn'tjust captain. He like owned this river
boat from CEO. Yeah, hewas a Confederate. He was in He
(27:17):
moved to Texas and he just startedbuying up all this land kind of like
in the souther like more south thanSan Antonio, like in the Corpus area
and the Oasis River area. Kindof just buying up all this land.
And he was buying it up withthe money from his river boat firm or
(27:38):
whatever, and he was just buyingit all up. He also had a
he loves Antonio because it's a bigcity, right and where he's buying the
land, there's like nothing there.He's just buying all this land. He's
he's cattle and ranch you know thinghe's doing. They bred horses, quarter
horses. I don't really understand.But I feel like I was reading about
it, and I'm like, I'mtrying to at the history off of this
(28:00):
big ranchets which is called the KingRanch. Right, it's still in existence
today. It's the biggest ranch inthe United States. It's bigger than Rhode
Island. It's humongous. They docattle, they do all kinds of things.
What was that We saw their truckswhile we were driving, remember,
yeah, the Ford King Ranches.Yeah, so it's a huge ranch.
(28:21):
It's a huge deal. And Iwas like, Okay, what are they
like famous for before? Like thecat like just catles. I guess they
bred like quarter horses, like different, Like they made up a breed of
quarter horse. I don't I didn'treally understand. I feel like the information
online was not very good for KingRanch, even from their website. I'm
just say anything about the chicken,I mean, they made up the chicken.
(28:42):
I believe his wife, I thinkher name was Henrietta King. She
was responsible for that King Ranch chickenrecipe. I guess. I don't know.
Yeah, don't quote me on that. A lot of history in there,
but oh, okay, so he'she was a big deal. He
is this huge wealthy man. He'slike superch He comes to San Antonio all
the time. He stays with theMinger and he has his own suite and
(29:04):
the suite is huge. You canstay at the suite now, the King
Ranch suite. It's not nearly asbig as it used to be. It
basically used to be a whole halfof that second floor with the balcony,
and now it's just like a livingroom and it's kind of a miniature hallway
with the bathroom and then the bedroom. Yeah, so that's what's in existence
(29:26):
now. And you can go thereand you know, have the room which
is his original bed is in thereand everything. So he loved the Minger
so much. Like I said,he was in poor health. He goes
to San Antonio to visitess doctors,doctors like you're dying. So he decides,
Okay, I'm staying here. I'mnot going back to my ranch.
(29:48):
I love San Antonio, I lovethe Minger, and I'm going to stay
here and die in this hotel inthis room. And he did. He
did all his business from there,He did all his wills and last rites.
He visit with his family, saidall his goodbye and he lived the
last few months of his life there. They believe now he died of stommit
cancer. So anyways, the bedthat he died in is still there in
(30:11):
the room, and just his originalbed. And I believe some of that
furniture because it was antique and Icouldn't find any information on it, but
it had to have been original aswell to the room for sure. The
couch in the bedroom and some ofthose other pieces in there. I don't
know about the living room furniture,but I'm going to guess the desk and
that other mirror were probably original tothe room too. Yeah, So that
(30:33):
couch in the living room, likethe parlor, I don't know. I
feel like that might be a reproduction. Okay, okay, as you saw
what the couch looked like in thebedroom, he saw how low that was
to the ground, and that othercouch in the living room was very That
was a small couch in the bedroom. It was a tiny little couch,
super tiny, like it was sosuper were smaller back then, Like I
(30:56):
was sitting on it, as likemy knees were like up to my chest
when I sat down. I waslike, what it's like a little bitty
CETI. Yeah, just so,so the bed is original, and we're
talking like the bed frame. Okay, we're all talking about the actual mattress.
Okay, they throw out the mattress. That's so discussing new mattress,
new pillows, original bed frame.It's like a four poster bed with like
(31:19):
a canopy on top. It's reallybeautiful. What's amazing. It's how great
it looks for being so old.No, Like, craftsmanship was amazing back.
Yeah, so we were very luckyto get access to the King Ranch
Room. Now, we did notstay in the King Ranch Room, but
they gave us the keys to theroom and we had what three days to
(31:41):
go in there? Yeah, wehad three what we wanted. It was
amazing, like and it's so andit's so amazing because I remember when they
were talking to us and they werelike, well, what do you need
from us? And I said,well, we just need a place to
stay, and you know, ifyou could, you know, let us
see inside of the King Ranch suite, that would be pretty amazing. And
they're like, oh, okay,So we get there and I'm not expecting
anything other than you know, Iknew that, get at it, right,
(32:06):
I knew Angela was going to begiving us a tour, and I
knew that, you know, wehad a room to stay in and that
they said that we could like walkaround and like do some various filming and
stuff like that. And so they'rechecking us in and they were like,
you have We're giving you access forthe entire weekend. We've closed the King
Ranch suite so that you can goin there and do your investigation. And
(32:27):
I was like what what? Yeah? That was like, it was so
awesome. It was a Christmas present. Yeah, it was. It was
great. And then it was funnytoo because we were meeting up with our
friends Aaron and Sarah from Hay Strangeness. If you guys aren't checking out their
podcast or following them, make sureto do so. But we were meeting
up with them one of the nightsand we were going to go get dinner
(32:49):
and drinks. Okay, they're inSan Antonio as well, and uh,
I was like I texted Aaron andI said, so, how would you
like to go inside of the KingRanch? And he goes, is that
an option? And I said itis? Now. They gave us the
keys, baby, and so yeah, that was a lot of fun to
go in there with them too.So the King Ranch Room Haunted by Richard
(33:15):
King. Those the stories, someof the stories coming out of what to
expect in the room or what weread online and what people in the hotel
told this. One was the cigarsmoke. He would smell intermittent cigar smoke
because he was a scar smoker.Other things was seeing his apparition walk through
(33:35):
walls. Now his room has beenremodeled and split up, so of course
he'd be walking to another side ofwhat originally used to be his room,
going through a wall right and anotherone. We're like orbs in the living
room where the couch and stuck were, so we did not see his ghost.
We did not see orbs, butnot the first time we went in
(34:00):
the room, but I think itwas the second or the third time we
walked in the room and we werehit with a cigar smell all of a
sudden, it was like you it'sit was like someone was smoking a cigar
and took it out and puffed thesmoke to our faces. Like that's what
it was like. It was thereand then it was it was gone.
(34:22):
It was really weird, and Iwasn't because people say those things that I'm
my uh yeah, I guess,you know. Every I feel like we're
such like dickheads in the parallel becauselike some of it will be like yeah
I felt this, and we're like, oh did you and then we go
in and we're like, oh mygod, like I feel, you know,
like it's like it's in that room. So in general, the King
(34:43):
Ranch sweet there wasn't anything negative oranything in there, but it was uninviting.
I'll say I felt like did notwant us stare. It just was
not an inviting place. And wehad another room on a different floor it
was perfectly fine, perfectly inviting,but when you went in that King Ranch
room, it just felt like noinviting, Like is what you're there?
(35:05):
Our room was on the same floor, it was on a second Oh oh
that's right, that's right. Yeah, it was just up and around the
corner and everything. Each can weare Can we talk about the room that's
next to the King Ranch Yes,let me see, I have it in
my notes because we talked about it. Ye have it in a different section
on my notes from make Meet Jomp. But uh, what was next to
(35:27):
the King Ranch suite which used tobe part of the original suite was the
Renaissance Room, and next to theRenaissance Room is another suite called the Roy
Rogers Suite. Yes, so yeah, what we learned and I'm looking for
it in my notes that first ofall, I didn't realize that it was
(35:49):
split up and that was the RoyRoger Suite. We actually talked to a
couple at the Manger Bar who wasstaying at the Roy Roger Suite who had
some paranormal activity and we were like, oh wow, and they were talking.
They literally wanted to come to thehotel. They were from McAllen a
love haunted history stuff. The guywas a is a home builder. Yeah,
(36:10):
he's a concert for their for hissixtieth birth sixtieth birthday. They were
there celebrating. They were really awesome, fun couple and I wish I remember
their names. We're all three gates. Yeah. We had drinks with them
at the Manger Bar and everything,and it was it was really just such
a great experience, really fun.Yeah. They were he collects like old
jew boxes and fixes them up.Yeah, they were showing us all the
(36:32):
picture of this old jew boxes andhe fixes up and everything. And I
was like that was a fun hobby. They were so cool. So they
were saying in the Roy Rogers Roomand she had filmed because they wanted to
stay in this haunted room, andshe had filmed, uh, some things
in the room to just to documentsome things. You know, she didn't
catch her goats. And when shestarted filming, I guess the first time,
(36:53):
all of a sudden, the picturejust swing like upside down, and
she doesn't know why it did.She was showing us a and then she's
showing us all the other video everything'sfine, but this one video, all
of a sudden that it looks likethe camera just rotates and she goes,
I wasn't doing anything. I don'tunderstand why it recorded this way, and
we're like, oh, that's weird. We didn't know this at the time.
We found this out later that eveningwhen we spoke to I think it
(37:15):
was a hotel security, yes,that was making the rounds and we were
able to talk to her, andshe took us to the Renaissance Room,
which is right next to the KingRanch, which she used to be part
of the King Ranch original room andRoy Rogers Room is right next to it,
and she told us when we werewalking around the Renaissance room that when
(37:37):
Roy Rogers. Roy Rogers was anactor and a singer cowboy in like the
nineteen thirties, fifty sixty seventies,right, he was really popular. As
he understands. You've probably seen twoWhat was that he has? He has
restaurants too, Oh yeah that theyYeah, so he would not stay anywhere
(38:00):
unless his horse, Trigger was allowedto come with him. Yeah. So
he told the minger, I willonly be here if you make a room
for my horse. And they did. They had this luxury indoor horse stable
for his horse Trigger. That hewould walk up this ramp and his horse
(38:22):
was able to be there, andthen he was in the suite next to
it. And I can't even believethat that was a thing. This room
is huge. It's a they calledit a meeting room, but it was
a huge meeting room like a miniballroom. There's a fireplace there and everything.
It was all for the horse,that's what it was for. So
that was amazing. I wish wewould have known that and we could have
(38:43):
told the people we met at thebar, but that wasn't until like after
we had spoken to them and everythinggetting ready to go back and continue our
investigation stuff. Yeah, so thatwas that was pretty interesting. And the
fact that we could have told them, well, that used to be part
of the King ranch. Sweet andif you are having paranoral activity it maybe
(39:04):
Richard King himself possible, very propible. I sure hope you guys enjoyed going
through the history of the Historic MangerHotel with us. Make sure you're tuned
in. In a couple of days, Part two of the Haunted Historic Manger
Hotel will be live for you,so make sure you're subscribed to Unrefined to
(39:25):
get the latest episodes directly to you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!