When you hear the phrase terrifying ghost, you might picture an old castle or a mist‑filled graveyard. Yet some of the most unsettling specters linger in places you can actually walk into—hotel rooms, a tavern bar, even a cemetery tomb. Below are ten bone‑chilling accounts of women whose tragic ends still echo through the walls they once inhabited.
10 Miss Elizabeth And Her Infant Child Goldfield, Nevada
At the turn of the 20th century, Goldfield, Nevada, bustled as a mining boomtown. In 1908 the Goldfield Hotel rose atop a mine shaft, and the building soon gathered a reputation for restless spirits. The most harrowing tale centers on Room 109. Hotel founder George Winfield kept a secret affair with a prostitute named Elizabeth. When she became pregnant, Winfield feared scandal. He allegedly shackled Elizabeth to a radiator in Room 109, hiding her from anyone who might see her.
After the baby’s birth, Winfield is said to have tossed the infant down the mine shaft in the basement and left Elizabeth to die chained to the radiator. Since then, visitors report seeing a sorrowful figure in Room 109 and feeling an icy presence. Some even swear they hear a baby’s wail echoing through the hallway.
Why This Terrifying Ghost Still Haunts the Goldfield Hotel
The combination of betrayal, murder, and a newborn’s loss creates a powerful imprint on the hotel’s energy, making Elizabeth’s apparition one of the most persistent in Nevada’s haunted lore.
9 Miss Sammie Dean Jerome, Arizona
Jerome, Arizona, thrived in the 1920s and ’30s as a classic western mining town, complete with saloons, drunken miners, and a bustling red‑light district. Among its courtesans was Sammie Dean, renowned for her striking beauty and a sizable stash of cash she always carried.
On July 10, 1931, Dean’s lifeless body was discovered on the floor of her room in “Husbands’ Alley,” a notorious stretch of town. She had been beaten and strangled. Police initially suspected robbery because her purse was empty.
In the years that followed, locals reported apparitions in Husbands’ Alley: a female spirit wandering at night, spectral voices, slamming doors, lingering perfume, strange shadows, the sensation of being watched, and phantom footsteps echoing across cobblestones. Jerome’s reputation as a haunted ghost town persists, and the identity of Dean’s killer remains a mystery.
8 Miss Lilly The Franklin Hotel
Since the 1850s, the Franklin Hotel in Strawberry Point, Iowa, has welcomed countless travelers—some of whom may never have left. Legend tells of Lilly, a prostitute who “entertained” guests in Room 7. Though the exact circumstances of her death are unknown, her spirit is said to linger.
Guests frequently report an unsettling, sad presence in Room 7, as well as odd noises. One long‑time resident, who lived in the hotel for 42 years, claimed to hear singing and moaning from the room above, even when it was vacant.
Hotel co‑owner Doug Schmidt, a noted skeptic, recounted a chilling night when he saw a woman in a long lavender gown glide from the lobby to the dining room. When he told her the hotel was closed, she vanished into the next room, disappearing into thin air. Schmidt still cannot explain the encounter.
7 Miss Peggy Zimbabwe
In Harare’s historic Highfield suburb, Peggy earned a reputation as a charismatic prostitute. In her late twenties, a jealous client brutally murdered her, and her spirit began haunting the dark roads, forever seeking a ride or a companion.
Witnesses claim that when a driver picks her up after dark, one of two eerie outcomes occurs: either the passenger is startled by her sudden, mysterious disappearance, or he awakens the next morning at the local cemetery—presumed to be Peggy’s final resting place.
6 Miss Rosie The Silver Queen Hotel
Virginia City, Nevada, once the industrial heart of the West, now draws visitors for its ghost tours. The Silver Queen Hotel, built in the 1800s, houses Room 11—infamously known as the most haunted space on the property. There, a prostitute named Rosie took her own life.
Guests report whispering in empty halls, doors slamming on their own, footsteps on a deserted balcony, growls emanating from Room 11, and objects falling off shelves. Many patrons flee the hotel in the early morning, convinced that Rosie’s restless soul still roams the premises.
5 Miss Julia Lowell Bisbee, Arizona
Bisbee, Arizona, is home to the Copper Queen Hotel, a four‑story Victorian marvel built in 1902 and still operating today. Among its most famous hauntings is the spirit of Miss Julia Lowell, a prostitute who worked the hotel in the 1920s‑’30s.
Lowell fell in love with a client who did not return her affection, leading her to commit suicide in her room. To this day, guests on the third and fourth floors report whispers, shoulder taps, levitating keys, and doors that lock and unlock on their own. While many are drawn to the hotel for these paranormal experiences, a sizable number end their stay by fleeing the eerie grounds.
4 Miss Josie Arlington New Orleans
Orphaned at four, Josie Arlington grew up in New Orleans’ red‑light district, where she quickly became known for her violent temperament. Legends claim she once bit off a fellow prostitute’s ears and lips. After her brother was murdered by a pimp, Josie built a lavish bordello that catered to the city’s elite, amassing wealth and notoriety.
Desiring acceptance among the upper class, Josie arranged for an extravagant burial in Metairie Cemetery. Following her 1914 death, the tomb became a hotspot for paranormal activity: flames erupted from the tomb, the statue in front of it reportedly moved on its own, and urns glowed red. Cemetery officials eventually exhumed her remains and relocated them to an unknown site, yet visitors still report eerie phenomena at the original tomb.
3 The Ole Tavern Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson’s historic Ole Tavern on George Street thrives on weekends, but after hours the atmosphere shifts. Patrons and staff recount chairs and desks moving unaided upstairs, lights flickering in vacant rooms, and disembodied female voices on the telephone.
During the 1970s, the tavern operated as a brothel. A prostitute was found dead on the premises, and her cause of death remains uncertain—some suspect suicide, others murder. Employees sometimes glimpse a spectral figure sitting at the bar in the early morning, and many wonder if the lingering voice on the phone belongs to that restless spirit.
2 The Headless Woman The Glen Tavern Inn
Since the early 1910s, Santa Paula’s Glen Tavern Inn has welcomed celebrities such as Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Yet the inn’s most infamous guests are the ghosts that refuse to depart. Guests report a girl with blonde braids wandering the halls, often mistaken for a lost child, and contractors fleeing after seeing children playing only to vanish into walls.
Rooms 218, 306, and 307 are especially active. On several occasions, doors in these vacant rooms have locked from the inside without explanation. The most chilling account comes from Room 307, where the spirit of a murdered, beheaded prostitute haunts the space. A maid discovered the dismembered body hidden in a closet, and since then, cold chills, knocking sounds, echoing voices, and an eerie mist have been reported.
1 The Lady In Red The Mizpah Hotel
Built in 1907 during Nevada’s mining rush, the Mizpah Hotel once stood as the state’s tallest building. It welcomed notorious figures like Wyatt Earp and Howard Hughes, but its most famous guest is Evelyn Mae Johnson—known as “The Lady in Red.”
Johnson worked the hotel as a prostitute under the name “Rose.” In 1914, a jealous ex‑lover burst into her room, discovered her “entertaining” another man, and erupted into murderous rage. He chased Rose into the hallway, where he strangled and repeatedly stabbed her.
Since that night, guests have sighted her in the hallways, inside the elevator, and in Room 504—her former quarters. Apparitions are often accompanied by a single pearl placed on a nightstand or pillow, a subtle reminder that the Lady in Red still lingers.