Shadowing Practice: The Unsolved Murder in Room 1046 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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This is Randolph Probst.
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He's a bellboy at the President Hotel in Kansas City.
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He just got sent to room 1046.
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The hotel's telephone operator told him that the phone is off the hook.
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Again.
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It's It's the second time he's been sent to the room that day.
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At 7 a.m., he knocked on the same door for the same reason.
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From inside the room, a deep voice told him to come in.
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But when he tried to open the door, it was locked.
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Assuming the guest was drunk, Probst shouted through the door to put the phone back on the hook and left.
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But the phone remained off the hook.
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So at 8.30 am, another bellboy, Harold Pike, was sent up to the room.
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When Pike knocked and tried to enter, he noticed something strange.
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The door handle turned freely, meaning it was locked from the outside.
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If it had been locked from the inside, the handle wouldn't have turned at all.
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So Pike used his passkey to enter the dim room.
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There he found a naked man lying on the bed, breathing heavily.
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There was a dark spot on the sheets next to him, but with the shades drawn, it just looked like a shadow.
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Pike picked up the knocked over telephone stand and placed the phone back in the hook.
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When he left the room, he locked the door from the outside, leaving it just as he had found it.
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Now it's 11am, and once again, the phone is off the hook.
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Probst knocks three times, but there's no answer.
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So he uses his key and opens the door.
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Less than a meter in front of him is the naked man, crouching on his knees and elbows with his head in his hands.
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Probst turns on the light.
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There's blood everywhere.
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It's all over the walls, the bed, and the bathroom.
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The man has a head wound.
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Frightened, Probst runs out and alerts the assistant manager, Mr. M.S.
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Weaver.
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The staff call for a doctor and notify the police.
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At around 11.15 a.m., the two men and another staff member return to the room.
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But they can only open the door a few inches.
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It seems the injured guest has collapsed against it from the inside.
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Fifteen minutes later, Dr. Harold F.
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Flanders arrives at the scene.
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Mr. Weaver, Dr. Flanders, and the bellboy, Pike, enter the room.
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The guest is no longer blocking the door.
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Instead, they find him sitting on the edge of the bathtub with his arms and head draped over the sink.
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Strangely there's a clothesline tied around his neck, ankles and wrists.
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The doctor takes stock of his condition.
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He's been stabbed in the chest.
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The wound might have punctured his lung.
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His skull is fractured on the right side where he was struck multiple times.
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And there are bruises around his neck suggesting he's been strangled.
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Miraculously, the man is still breathing and semi-conscious.
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The doctor cuts him loose and notes that his wounds aren't fresh.
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They seem to be at least six or seven hours old.
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The blood is already dry.
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According to newspaper reports, when police detective Ira L.
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Johnson arrives, they ask the wounded man a series of questions.
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Who did this, Mr. Owen?
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Who was in the room with you?
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Nobody.
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How did you get these injuries?
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I fell against the bathtub.
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Did you try to commit suicide?
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No. Following this brief exchange, the man loses consciousness.
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He's taken to the hospital, but he slips into a coma.
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Later that night, he dies, taking his killer's identity with him to his grave.
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The murder is national news.
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It's called America's Strangest and Perfect Murder Crime.
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The Kansas City police are stumped.
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This case came nearer to being the perfect crime than any other murder Kansas City has seen.
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The strange occurrences in the President Hotel have fascinated people for almost a century.
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A few years ago, the case files were made public for the first time.
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Some 500 documents contain detailed witness accounts, anonymous phone calls, letters from a dead man,
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and a mysterious object found in an attic decades later.
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This is the unsolved murder in room 1046.
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This video is largely based in the official case files of the Kansas City Police.
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Some details are based on research conducted by Dr. John Arthur Horner of the Kansas City Public Library, the first to gain access to these files.
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We also reference the 1943 article, Mystery Murder, Room 1046, by the Newcastle Sun.
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Further sources can be found in the description.
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Oh, and yes, we've fully recreated the room and hallway to bring this story to life for you.
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It's afternoon, and bellboy Randolph Probst is asked to escort a new guest to his room.
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The guest is Roland T.
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Owen.
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He looks young, but his age is hard to guess.
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He could be anywhere from his early 20s to his mid-30s.
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He's well dressed in a black overcoat with a heavy set build and brown hair.
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He also has cauliflower ear, giving him the look of a boxer or a wrestler.
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They take the elevator all the way to the 10th floor.
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While checking in, the young man had made a very specific request.
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He asked for a room several floors up with a window that didn't face the street.
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He's assigned to room 1046.
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In the elevator, Owen tells Probst that he stayed at the nearby Muehlbach Hotel the night before.
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When they enter the room, Probst turns on the light.
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He observes Owen taking a brush, comb and toothpaste out of his overcoat pocket and putting them above the bathroom sink.
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Strangely, they're the only items he checked in with.
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As they leave the room, Probst turns off the light, locks the door from the outside and gives the key to Owen.
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They ride the elevator down to the lobby together and Owen leaves the building.
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Around 40 minutes later, cleaning lady Mary Soptic knocks on the door of room 1046.
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To her surprise, Owen opens it.
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She had expected a female guest, so she excuses herself telling Owen she'll call again later.
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But he doesn't seem to mind.
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Entering the room, Soptic notices the blinds are drawn tight.
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The only light comes from a dim desk lamp.
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Seeing the expression on Owen's face, she notes that he seems...
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Worried about something, or afraid.
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As she starts to clean, he puts on his overcoat, goes to the bathroom to comb his hair, and leaves the room.
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On his way out, he instructs Soptik not to lock the door, as he's expecting a friend in a few minutes.
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By the time she leaves, no one else has arrived. And...
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Cuss.
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Bringing room 1046 to life took quite a lot out of our producer, Mona.
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And it's tough to wind down after adrenaline-filled production days.
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For a lot of you, winding down means white noise or whale sounds or doom scrolling until your phone drops on your face.
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You do you.
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Chances are you're already battling a room that's too hot, bright and noisy.
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Luckily, Mona has a manta mask.
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They do masks you can actually sleep in.
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On your side, face down, in the tub, whatever your sleep style is.
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It's got adjustable eye cups and breathable material, and it's 100% blackout.
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There are different masks to choose from.
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The Classic Sleep Mask, Pro Mask, and Sound Sleep Mask.
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This one's got built-in Bluetooth speakers ultra-thin, specifically for you side sleepers.
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No earbuds falling out at 3 a.m., no phone speaker waking up whoever's next to you.
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So you can keep listening to whatever's getting you to sleep tonight.
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podcasts, true crime, a 24-hour loop of the theme from Friends, no judgment, and actually be comfortable while you do it.
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Go to mantasleep.com and use the code FERN10 for 10% off.
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Subtick returns to the room to deliver some fresh towels.
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The door is unlocked.
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Owen is lying across the bed in the dark.
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Walking in, she notices a note on the the desk.
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Dawn, I will be back in fifteen minutes.
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Wait.
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Sobdick comes back to clean again the next morning.
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She unlocks the door and finds Owen inside, sitting alone in the dark.
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Then a realization hits her.
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I realized then, after I had unlocked this door, that the man had been locked in the room from the outside.
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If he had locked it from the inside, her key wouldn't have turned in the lock.
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While she's making the bed, the phone rings.
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Owen picks up the receiver and says, No Don, I don't want to eat.
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I'm not hungry.
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I just had breakfast.
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Before hanging up, he repeats that he isn't hungry.
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the call, he asks Soptic about her job and whether she's in charge of the whole floor.
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He mentions that he recently changed hotels.
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At around 4 o'clock that afternoon, she returns to deliver fresh towels.
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But this time, Owen isn't alone.
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As Soptic approaches the door, she hears two men talking in low tones.
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She knocks in the door.
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Strange, she thinks.
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She didn't leave any towels in the room that morning.
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And the only reason the other man might lie is to keep her out of the room.
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Robert Lane is driving down 13th Street past Lydia Avenue when he notices a man running down the street toward him.
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It's a cold January night, but he's only wearing shoes, trousers, and an undershirt.
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Waving and shouting, the stranger asks Lane to stop.
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But when he approaches the car, he realizes his mistake.
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I'm sorry, I thought you were a taxi.
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Still, he asks for a ride.
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Will you take me to where I can get a cab?
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Lane agrees, and as the man hops into the back seat he gets a closer look at him.
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There's a deep scratch on his left arm, and he's cupping his hands together, as if to catch blood dripping from a more serious wound.
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You look as if you've been in it bad.
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The man responds with a grumbled threat to his attacker.
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I'll kill that f* tomorrow.
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The statement sticks in Lane's mind.
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When they reach the intersection at 12th and Troost, the young man thanks him and jumps out of the car.
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He runs to a parked taxi, opens the door, and honks the horn, summoning the driver from a nearby restaurant.
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Elevator operator and stand-in bellboy Charles Blocker is clocking in for his night shift.
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Shortly after, a woman enters the elevator and asks to be taken to the 10th floor.
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Blocker recognizes her as a commercial woman who often frequents the hotel with different men.
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She's about 5'6", 135 pounds, with black hair, and she's wearing a black Hudson Seal coat with a light strip of fur on the collar.
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She asks about room 1026, telling Blocker that she's looking for a client, a man who is usually Very prompt in his appointments.
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But after a short time, she returns to the elevator, claiming she couldn't find him.
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Blocker takes her back to the lobby and she leaves the hotel.
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After about an hour, she's back.
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This time, she's accompanied by a man.
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He's around her height with a slender build.
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He's wearing a light brown overcoat, a brown hat, and brown shoes.
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They ask to be taken up together, this time to the ninth floor.
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At around 4.15 a.m., the woman returns from the ninth floor and leaves the hotel.
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Fifteen minutes later, the man she arrived with follows.
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On the way down, he complains to Blocker that he couldn't sleep.
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Then he leaves.
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It's the middle of the night, and hotel guest Jean Owen is lying awake in her room.
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Room 1048.
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She's trying to sleep, but the noises coming from the room next door are keeping her up.
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She can hear multiple voices sounding both male and female.
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talking loudly and swearing.
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It's so loud, in fact, that she considers calling the front desk, but she decides against it.
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Eventually, she falls asleep.
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When she wakes up at 8 a.m., it's quiet.
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She eats breakfast and checks out, unaware that in the room next to hers, only a few hours later, a man will be found inches from death.
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Kansas City Police Detectives Ira L.
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Johnson and William E.
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Eldridge are at a loss.
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They finished interviewing all the witnesses they could find, but their statements have led to more questions than answers.
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The front desk ledger at the President Hotel shows the victim signed in as Roland T.
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Owen from Los Angeles.
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But when they checked the ledger at the Muehlbach Hotel, where he told staff he had previously stayed, he was signed in as Eugene K.
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Scott.
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The detectives contacted authorities in Los Angeles, but neither name could be found in any records.
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They're fake identities.
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They also pursued another lead, but the victim was a professional wrestler.
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A week after the man's death, a wrestling promoter from Arkansas named Tony Bernardi came to identify the body.
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At Melody McGilley Funeral Home, Bernardi positively identified the man as one who had approached him weeks earlier for work.
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According to John Horner, the name he had given was Cecil Werner.
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Another alias leading to another dead end.
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Based on the accounts of the hotel's maiden bellboy, someone clearly locked the victim in his room.
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Was he being held prisoner?
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The Newcastle Sun claims that Owen likely didn't have the key to his room, as it wasn't found there after his death.
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And this wasn't the only thing that was missing.
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All of the victim's clothing, his toiletries, and the knife he was stabbed with had disappeared.
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Anything that could help the police identify him.
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According to Horner, all that was left behind was an odd collection of items.
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A necktie label, a hairpin, a safety pin, an unlit cigarette, and a small unopened bottle of diluted sulfuric acid.
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The only other clue the detectives found in the room were fingerprints on the telephone stand, likely a woman's.
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Possibly the same woman Jean heard arguing with two men on the night of the murder.
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It's plausible they were left there by the prostitute seen by the elevator operator, but she was never seen entering the room.
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Then there's the man she was with.
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Was it the same man who had been in the room earlier, talking quietly with Owen?
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Could that be Don, the man that he had talked to on the phone?
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The one that the note was for?
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Did they really have business on the ninth floor?
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Or did they take the stairs one floor up to avoid being seen entering the tenth floor via the elevator?
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Were they both present when Owen was bound and stabbed?
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After all, the doctor had estimated that his wounds were six to seven hours old when he was found.
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This would mean that they were inflicted in the middle of the night, and that the victim had already been wounded when the bellboys came knocking that morning.
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But when the detective asked who had heard him, the victim simply said, Nobody.
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Was he afraid?
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Delirious from his brain injury?
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Or was he maybe trying to protect his attacker?
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The account from Robert Lane, the driver, adds to the confusion.
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According to Horner, the detectives had him identify the body in the morgue, and Lane claimed that Owen was, in fact, the man he had given a ride to.
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But the detectives didn't think it was possible for the young man to leave the hotel and return dressed in his underwear.
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Not without somebody in the lobby spotting him.
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At the end of the day, the detectives have nothing.
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No murder weapon, no murderer.
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Not even the victim's identity.
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Without any actionable leads, the investigation grinds to a halt.
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But then the strange calls start.
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This is Mr. McGilley.
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He's the undertaker at the Melody McGilley Funeral Home, where the body of Roland T.
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Owen has been on display for around three months.
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During this time, thousands of people stop by in the hopes of identifying the body, without any luck.
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Since no family member or relative has come forward to claim it, The time has come to bury the body in a mass grave reserved for the poor and the anonymous.
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But first, an obituary for the unknown man is published in the Kansas City Journal Post.
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Horner claims that shortly after, Mr. McGilley receives an anonymous phone call.
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The man on the other end makes a simple request.
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Don't bury Owen in a papa's grave.
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Instead, he asks that Owen be buried in Memorial Park Cemetery.
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He assures the undertaker.
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I will send funds to cover the funeral expenses.
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The caller explains that Owen jilted a girl he'd promised to marry.
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He claims to have witnessed this, and that the three of them held a little meeting at the President Hotel.
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Unconcerned, the man simply responds, That's all right, Mr. McGillie.
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He says one last thing before hanging up.
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Owen hadn't played the game fair, and cheaters usually get what's coming to them.
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Meanwhile, the editor of the journal Post also receives a phone call, but this time the caller is a woman.
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She tells the editor that the story in the paper is wrong.
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got into a jam.
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Just as the man on the first call promised Mr. McGillie, 20 days later, the funeral home receives a special delivery,
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a letter carefully addressed using a pen and ruler, and closed as $25 in cash.
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And this isn't the only anonymous delivery.
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13 American Beauty Roses are sent to the funeral.
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The florist who delivers them is instructed to include a card.
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It contains just the words, Love forever, Louise.
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Roland T.
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Owen is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery instead of in a pauper's grave.
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Police detectives are the only pallbearers.
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Expecting the man or Louise to show up, other officers disguise themselves as grave diggers and watch the cemetery for days.
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In the end, no one shows up to the funeral.
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No one visits the grave.
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The phone calls and the cash deliveries are impossible to trace.
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Despite a new theory being pushed in newspapers that this was a lover's quarrel gone wrong, the investigators don't buy it.
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They're once again at a loss.
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For almost two years, the trail goes cold,
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until a certain woman randomly stumbles on a curious newspaper article titled The Mystery of Room Number 1046.
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This is Ruby Ogletree.
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She's looking at an article published in the American Weekly in May 1935.
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The article features a photo of a dead man, a man she recognizes immediately.
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The scar on his head is unmistakable.
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She remembers him getting it from a grease burn as a child.
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It's her son, Artemis Ogletree, who at the time of his death was only 17 years old.
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The article claims he was murdered over a year ago in January.
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The question is, if her son is really dead, then who's been writing to her all this time?
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In April of 1934, Artemis left his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama to hitchhike across the country with a friend named Joe Simpson.
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In late January 1935, Ruby receives a letter from her son.
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It's been a few weeks since he last wrote.
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His previous letters were always simple, telling her about his latest job prospects, his next destination and the friends he was traveling with.
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I think that fellow I told you about was going to open a business
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and give me half interest in it has definitely made up his mind to open in the spring.
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He's about the best friend I have.
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He has a big Cadillac.
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We are going to Excelsior Springs next week in it.
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Artemis always wrote by hand.
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His writing was straightforward, with little exaggeration and few flourishes.
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But this letter is different.
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She notices that it was written using a typewriter.
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As far as she knows, her son never learned how to type, but the letter says otherwise.
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I still practice on the typewriter when I get a chance.
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The big typewriter companies have branches in all large towns where you can practice all you want to.
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It's plausible that he could have learned, but it does strike her as suspicious.
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Reading the letter further, she finds out about his grand plans to head to New York inspired by a conversation with a sailor.
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I was talking to a fellow the other day, he just got back from Europe, worked his way across and back on a big freighter.
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He implies that he wants to travel the world and head for Europe, but first he has to make it to New York.
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Conveniently, he gets a chance to do just that.
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A man wants me to drive him and his family to New York.
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The letter ends with a strange handwritten postscript.
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P.S.
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Don't worry about Artemis.
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Sorry to learn he's not coming home.
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Lem.
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Ruby receives the next letter several weeks later, this time from New York.
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Apparently, Artemis had driven the man, who he now identifies as Mr. Jordan, to the city.
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Jordan then helped him get a job, but it didn't work out.
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What stands out most to her is the letter's outlandish detail and unusual slang.
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I got poisoned on something I ate at some dump.
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I was laid up for a few days and my stomach pained me a lot, but I finally got over that.
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Then I caught the flu and had to go to bed for almost 9 weeks
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and I guess I was pretty sick." This is inconsistent.
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Elsewhere he claims to have only been in New York for 6 weeks.
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After making excuses for not riding sooner, Artemis expands on his plans to work on a freighter.
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I think that I'll be leaving here in a few days to go on across the big pond.
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I understand it takes almost a month to get across
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and maybe a few more weeks to unload the ship at different ports.
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He includes the address of a post office in Paris telling his mother to send her letters to him there.
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I sure want to see Paris, so I'll be heading that way all the time.
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But shortly after, Ruby receives another letter from New York.
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Well, I joined the freighter for the trip across and they have put me to work already.
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Confirming his departure, he clarifies one last detail.
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I decided not to send my heavy coat home.
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In the previous letter, he had written that he might send his winter clothes home to her.
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It's a curious detail.
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A coat also disappeared from the scene of the crime.
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The signature on this final letter is once again typewritten.
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Artemis.
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Ruby Ogletree doesn't hear from her son for another four months.
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Then, one day in August, she receives a phone call from a man with a familiar name.
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Mr. Godfrey Jordan.
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Ruby has a 45 minute phone call with her son's mysterious benefactor.
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Jordan tells her that he's just left Artemis in Cairo, Egypt, where they had met while Jordan was traveling through the Holy Land.
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Another inconsistency.
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Mr. Jordan supposedly met Artemis in New York.
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Now he's claiming they met somewhere halfway around the world.
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According to him, the two formed a life-and-death bond when Artemis saved him from a band of thugs.
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To repay him, Jordan says he gave Artemis money and arranged for his passage home through Paris and London.
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The Newcastle Sun reports that he also claimed Artemis married a wealthy woman in Cairo and was doing well.
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Conveniently, he even has an explanation for the typewritten letters.
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Apparently, Artemis lost his right thumb during the fight for Jordan's life.
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Because of this injury, he could no longer hold a pen to write.
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This also doesn't make much sense.
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Why would he have started typing in New York even though he only lost his thumb in Cairo?
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Ruby is understandably alarmed by the call.
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Jordan assures her that Artemis is fine and will be home for Christmas.
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He urges her not to worry about not hearing from her son.
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But she doesn't buy it.
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The story simply seems too outlandish, so she begins an investigation of her own.
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First, she contacts the American Consul General in Cairo.
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She details her call with Jordan and asks them to find her son.
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The Consul replies a few weeks later.
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They are unable to find any trace of him.
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Then she writes to the director of the FBI, J.
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Edgar Hoover, asking for any information.
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Ten days later, Hoover replies.
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A search of the bureau files has failed to disclose any information about her son.
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She also writes to the Department of State to inquire about Artemis' passport.
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No record is found of such a document ever being issued to him, meaning legally he couldn't have traveled to Egypt.
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Making no progress with her inquiries, she has one last hope, that her son will make his way home for Christmas.
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But despite Jordan's promise, Artemis never shows up.
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Desperate, Ruby makes a last-ditch effort to find her son.
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She sends a letter to the president, Franklin D.
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Roosevelt.
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It contains a photo, a description, and a mother's plea.
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I fear he has fallen into the hands of some gang, or something has happened to him.
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I simply must find some trace of him.
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Her letter to the White House is forwarded to the FBI.
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Eight days later, she again receives a response from FBI Director J.
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Edgar Hoover.
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Please be advised that this photograph is being retained in the files here for future reference.
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Regarding your son, you'll be promptly notified.
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The picture she sent isn't linked to the murder in Kansas City.
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Things don't fall into place for Ruby until she sees her dead son in that article ten months later.
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The identification of Roland T.
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Owen as Artemis Ogletree breathes new life into the investigation.
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With the victim's real name, the detectives are able to retrace his steps.
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He discovered that for several months he had stayed at a third place in Kansas City, the St. Regis Hotel.
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There, he checked in with a companion, a man who signed the register as Donald Kelso.
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Presumably, the Don.
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In 1937, there finally seems to be a break in the case.
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A man is arrested in New York.
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A career criminal who was known to have used Donald Kelso as an alias before.
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A man who served time in a psychiatric ward in Artemis' hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.
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A man convicted of a murder in New York that had striking similarities to the Ogletree killing.
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According to a New Yorker article from 1938, he had shot his roommate, dismembered him, and attempted to ship the nude body to Memphis in a steamer truck.
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His real name is Joseph Ogden.
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Police Chief Otto Higgins decides that the cases have too many things in common for it to be a coincidence.
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To prove the connection, the police send samples of Joseph Ogden's handwriting in the hotel register to the FBI.
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But the tests are inconclusive.
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Still, Chief Higgins is convinced that Ogden is the killer.
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In the minds of the police, the murder is solved.
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We have the picture of Joseph Ogden and are satisfied that he is the man known to us as Don Kelso.
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And the letters written to his mother all check.
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You might call it a mother's intuition.
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Ruby Ogletree doesn't believe Ogden is her son's killer.
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To her, the letters and the phone calls she received were too personal.
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They didn't seem like the work of a random gangster, but somebody who knew her son intimately.
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Someone like his friend Joe Simpson.
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And Ruby has mentioned her suspicions about Simpson to the police before.
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Mrs. Ogletree does not know of anyone her son left Birmingham with except Joe Simpson.
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But the detectives have already corresponded with Simpson by letter.
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He claimed that he traveled with Artemis to Los Angeles where they split up, never to meet again.
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Less than a month after Higgins writes that he's satisfied Ogden is the killer, Ruby writes to him again, urging him to look into Simpson.
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I really do believe Joe Simpson can give us some real information if you could only make him talk.
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But the detectives ignore her suspicions.
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In their eyes, his alibi doesn't warrant further investigation.
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So Ruby continues her investigation alone, determined to find an answer.
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Her first lead is a letter Joe Simpson had sent after it became public knowledge
410
that Artemis was the victim in the mysterious murder in room 1046.
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In it, he told the same story he had presented to the police.
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I was horrified to read of the atrocious slaying of your son.
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Artemis was a good boy, and I'm sure he wasn't involved in anything illegitimate.
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If there's anything I can do to aid in the solving of this case, I will be very glad to help.
415
This thoughtful gesture also contained an interesting postscript.
416
P.S.
417
Artemis and I left Birmingham alone, only two of us.
418
If true, this means
419
that Simpson was the only person on record to have seen Artemis alive before he re-emerged under different aliases in Kansas City.
420
Ruby becomes even more suspicious when she finds out Simpson had failed to visit her while in Birmingham for work.
421
He'd promised to do so multiple times.
422
Clearly he's avoiding her for some reason.
423
She wants to speak to him face to face, so she hunts him down.
424
Ruby, her husband, and a friend track Simpson to the house of one of his friends, Bill Hogan.
425
Simpson's car is parked in the street, so Mr. Ogletree goes to look for him, leaving his wife and her friend behind.
426
It takes over an hour for Joe and his friend Bill to come outside.
427
All five sit in the Ogletree's cramped car together.
428
I said to Joe, well, five years are a long time for one to keep trying to see one.
429
I had been told he did not intend to see me at all.
430
Joe tells Ruby that he had only avoided seeing her because he was afraid she would cry.
431
It seems to her that Joe answers her questions very carefully.
432
Mostly, he claims not to remember.
433
But a few key things stand out to her.
434
The first is Simpson's voice and speech patterns.
435
During her call with Godfrey Jordan, she had noticed a specific verbal tick.
436
He repeatedly prefaced his sentences with, You see, Or, You see, it's like this.
437
Sitting in the car now, Joe says something that sets alarm bells ringing.
438
You see Artemis told me he wanted to go to Africa.
439
Right after, his friend Bill corrects him saying, Egypt.
440
Why would he correct him?
441
Was it a slip up?
442
And how would these boys know about the Egypt lie she was told on the phone?
443
The longer she hears his voice, the more confident she becomes.
444
Finally, she confronts Joe directly.
445
I looked Joe square in the eyes and I told him I would know the voice that talked to me from Memphis.
446
Hiding closely together in the car, his physical reaction is difficult to hide.
447
He turned red, dropped his eyes, and was nervous.
448
When the investigation comes up, she notes a curious shift in Joe's demeanor.
449
She says that Kansas City's chief of police called the murder in room 1046 the perfect crime.
450
At that, Joe seems to become...cocky.
451
He laughs and says, It is.
452
They'll never get the ones who killed him.
453
Birth is a strange reaction to your friend's death.
454
Ruby then mentions that her son was found nude, without any of his clothes or even his shoes.
455
Once again, Joe just laughs and says, They were mine.
456
He goes on to explain that he and Artemis had gotten kicked out of a hotel and slept in a park together.
457
There, Artemis' shoes were stolen off his feet.
458
The claim raises questions about the story that they had parted ways in L.A.
459
Because Ruby remembers a crucial detail.
460
Artemis had wired her about buying a new pair and the wire had been sent from Kansas City, Missouri.
461
If Joe remembers Artemis needing new shoes, it's likely the boys were together in Kansas City.
462
Then Joe implies that he couldn't have been with Artemis because he was in high school during that time in 1935.
463
But Ruby sees in the school's records that Joe was expelled for poor attendance on January 2,
464
1935, the same day Artemis checked into the President Hotel.
465
The The records also show that Joe had been absent from school for a total of 21.5 days, meaning that he also could have been absent in the days before the murder.
466
Finally, Joe claims to have stayed in touch with Artemis after they split up.
467
He promises Ruby he'll send her a letter he received from Artemis.
468
A letter he claims...
469
Was badly typed.
470
Ruby knows all the letters Artemis would have sent while he was with Joe were handwritten.
471
The letters she'd received from the imposter after her son's death weren't public knowledge.
472
Why does Joe claim that Artemis used a typewriter?
473
Did he receive a letter from the same imposter?
474
Or is he himself the imposter?
475
In talking with the boy, Joe Simpson, I was reasonably convinced that he is the person that talked to me seven months after my son was killed.
476
Ruby never receives a letter from Joe after their meeting.
477
When he fails to deliver on his promise, she writes up their entire conversation in detail and reports it to the Kansas City Police Department.
478
But Joe is never prosecuted for the murder of her son.
479
More than a decade passes.
480
The murder in room 1046 is still unsolved.
481
Then, in 1950, the FBI analyzes the handwriting samples from Joseph Ogden and Don Kelso again.
482
This time, they come to a definitive conclusion.
483
The handwriting doesn't match.
484
Ogden was most likely not the killer.
485
Donald Kelso is never identified.
486
The case goes cold once again, until a final mysterious phone call is made over 50 years later.
487
Dr. John Horner is a researcher and librarian at the Kansas City Public Library.
488
He claims that one day he receives an anonymous phone call from out of state.
489
The caller recounts clearing out the possessions of an elderly person who had recently died.
490
Among the things they found was a box.
491
Inside was a collection of newspaper clippings about the murder of Roland T.
492
Owen.
493
But there's more.
494
The box also contained something mentioned in the newspaper stories.
495
Horner asks what the item is, but the caller refuses to identify it.
496
Without giving their name, the caller hangs up and disappears.
497
Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Unsolved Murder in Room 1046”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Artemis, Owen, letter, Joe. This video has 497 sentences and 5816 words to shadow. The speech runs for 35:40. The speaker talks at a natural 163 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| elevator noun | /ˈɛləˌveɪtɚ/ | Anything that raises or uplifts. |
| bellboy noun | /ˈbɛlˌbɔɪ/ | A male worker, usually at a hotel, who carries luggage and runs errands. |
| caller noun | /ˈkɔːlə/ | The person who makes a telephone call. |
| anonymous adjective | /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/ | Lacking a name; not named, for example an animal not assigned to any species . |
| overcoat noun | /ˈoʊvɚkoʊt/ | A heavy garment worn over other clothes, for protection from cold or weather. |
| typewriter noun | [ˈtaɪpˌɹaɪtə(ɹ)] | A device, at least partially mechanical, used to print text by pressing keys that cause type to be impressed through an inked ribbon onto paper. |
| bury verb | /ˈbɛɹi/ | To outlive. |
| mysterious adjective | /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/ | Of unknown origin. |
| freighter noun | /ˈfɹeɪtɚ/ | One who loads a ship. |
| impostor noun | /ɪmˈpɑstɚ/ | Someone who attempts to deceive by using an assumed name or identity. |
| handwriting noun | /ˈhændɹaɪtɪŋ/ | The act or process of writing done with the hand, rather than typed or word-processed. |
| stab verb | /stæb/ | To pierce or to wound (somebody) with a (usually pointed) tool or weapon, especially a knife or dagger. |
| towel noun | /ˈtaʊ̯əl/ | A cloth used for wiping, especially one used for drying anything wet, such as a person after a bath. |
| lobby noun | /ˈlɑ.bi/ | An entryway or reception area; vestibule; passageway; corridor. |
| cemetery noun | /ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛɹ.i/ | A place where the dead are buried; a graveyard or memorial park. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| hang up verb | To put up to hang. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. |
| split up verb | Cease to be together, break apart from the group. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| clear out verb | To completely empty. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| drive down verb | To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Who was in the room with you?
- How did you get these injuries?
- Did you try to commit suicide?
- I'm sorry, I thought you were a taxi.
- Will you take me to where I can get a cab?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has collapsed · has seen · have fascinated |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been sent · was locked · was sent |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | woman who often · man who is · one who had |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 53 contractions and reduced forms, such as doesn't, didn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: ninth /naɪnθ/, bathtub /ˈbæθtʌb/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: outlandish /ˌaʊtˈlændɪʃ/, suspicion /səˈspɪʃ.ən/, assure /əˈʃʊɹ/, suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/, identification /aɪˌdɛn(t)ɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: elevator /ˈɛləˌveɪtɚ/, anonymous /əˈnɒn.ə.məs/, mysterious /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/, cemetery /ˈsɛm.ɪˌtɛɹ.i/, undertaker /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌteɪkə(ɹ)/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like elevator, bellboy, caller.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.