June 22, 2025
SKELETON IN CELLAR OF
OLD OCCIDENTAL HOTEL.
Workmen Uncover Gruesome Relic
Under Building Historic in
Kansas City's Early Days.
A ghastly relic of some unknown or long forgotten crime, part of a human skull which apparently had lain in the debris for years, was uncovered Saturday by workmen excavating for the foundation of a scaffolding in the basement of the old Occidental hotel at Fifth and Bluff streets.
Yesterday other parts of the skeleton were found. The police believe that the trash and cinders cover a crime committed so many years ago that the mystery will never be unraveled.
The Occidental hotel long was one of the principal hostelries of the North end. With the departure of the business district from that section of the city the building had developed into a rooming house of indifferent character. Many robberies and other crimes were reported from the old rookery, and under pressure of the public sentiment the place was finally closed.
Last week the owner engaged carpenters to remodel it. Daylight penetrated the basement for the first time since the building was erected when a carpenter tore open the overhead flooring. As he dug into the trash with a shovel, he uncovered the lower jaw of a human skull.
"None of it in mine," he said, as he climbed to the floor above.
The firemen of No. 6 station, directly around the corner, took possession of the bone and exhibited it to all visitors. Yesterday it was turned over to the police department, along with several fragments of human ribs which were uncovered late yesterday afternoon. Dr. Fred Kryger and Dr. J. W. Hayward, who examined the bones, said that they were probably buried ten years ago. The jaw bone would indicate that the skeleton is that of a man who was probably 25 years old at death for the wisdom teeth had barely pushed through the bone.
The bones were found in the south-east corner of the cellar on top of a pile of cinders. From the slope of the debris it is believed that the cinders had been thrown in to the cellar from an outside window which has long been choked by debris. The outside of the window can be seen from the inside.
The police have not yet decided whether the body was carried into the cellar from the floor above or whether the bones were shoveled through the open window after the crime had been committed. The cellar will be searched today.
Labels: Bluff street, doctors, Fifth street, Fire, history, hotels, murder, police
