A basement fire, a desperate escape, and a suitcase full of contradictions turned the Hotel Congress into one of the Southwest’s most enduring ghost stories. We head to downtown Tucson to unravel how a 1918 rail-side hotel became ground zero for Dillinger’s capture and a century of spectral lore, then walk room by room through the encounters that keep investigators coming back.

We start with the history: Congress Street’s expansion, the Southern Pacific station, and the 1934 blaze that raced upward to the gang’s hideout. From there, we sift through the strangest details in the recovered luggage—Tommy guns, body armor, cash, gold coins, and whispers of a glass eyeball and a skeletal hand—and how those artifacts shaped decades of first-hand claims from staff and guests. The building’s restoration, landmark status, and still-working switchboard frame a space where time hasn’t fully moved on.

Then we dig into the hauntings with care. Room 242 carries the weight of a life cut short, with reports of a woman in white who sits at the bed or curls close in quiet grief. Room 220 is lighter, marked by a World War II veteran’s routine and the playful reappearance of butter knives left in impossible places. Room 214 hosts a dapper figure in seersucker and hat, often seen at the window of an unrented room, while 212 delivers pure anxiety: locks clicking, doors opening, and a ghostly “apprentice” practicing the craft of intrusion. Under the sidewalks, sealed tunnels with old glass lenses echo a harsher past—Chinese labor routes, smugglers, and disappearances—that anchor the hotel’s stories in Tucson’s wider underground.

If you love haunted hotels, true crime legends, and the way residual energy loops through old routines, this tour of the Hotel Congress is your next deep dive. We share what to watch for, how to plan a multi-room investigation, and where to extend your trip—Tombstone, Bisbee, and beyond—for a full Southern Arizona paranormal circuit. Subscribe, share with a fellow ghost nerd, and leave a review telling us which room you’d dare to spend the night in.

We apologize for the echo and technical difficulties.

Thank you for listening to the Paranormal Peeps Podcast. Check us out on Facebook Paranormal Peeps Podcast or Coldspot Paranormal Research and on Instagram coldspot_paranormal_research

Support the show