Get ready for Halloween with these scarily true tales

By Kristian DePue

Editor’s note: These are the creepy Colorado tales to tell. Read our companion piece to find the creepy Colorado places to visit.

In December 1904, Colorado surveyors discovered the badly decomposed body of a woman on Mount Cutler. She had been so badly burned it made identification in the early 20th century impossible. Additionally, all jewelry had been removed from her incinerated corpse. No local missing person report was filed, so it was concluded that the victim was probably one of thousands of tourists to the Pikes Peak region.

The Colorado Springs Police Department and coroner D.F. Law launched an investigation. While the fire consumed facial features, some hair remained intact. Dr. Isaac Burton, a local dentist, made a cast of the woman’s teeth and noted his work. Investigators hoped the teeth might be a way to identify the victim.

The early work on the case would reverberate for more than a century.

“The (Mt. Cutler murder) was included in our Colorado Springs at 150 (years) exhibit because it’s an important, significant piece of scientific history, illustrating an advancement in the field of forensic science,” said Leah Davis Witherow, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum’s Curator of History.

Approaching the 1905 new year, after distributing detailed information about the unknown woman’s dental work to thousands of police departments across the country, officials received a telegram from Syracuse, New York, identifying the Mt. Cutler victim as Bessie Bouton.

The murderer was eventually discovered to be Milton Franklin Andrews, who committed suicide a year later while surrounded by police in Berkeley, Calif.

Celebrating the city’s 150th anniversary, the Pioneers Museum exhibits history, while the Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs provides periodic tours across downtown, including haunted tours during October.

“Downtown Colorado Springs is the historic heart of the city … it’s been gifted with a lot of creative people as well as historic buildings and tall tales,” said Claire Swinford, Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs’ Executive Director of Downtown Ventures.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

Another occurrence, on September 17, 1911, rocked the city when a shadowy figure silently invaded the Wayne family’s home, where husband, wife and daughter slept.

As they dreamt, a nightmare loomed over their beds with an axe. All three were bludgeoned to death. Before exiting into the darkness of night, the murderer methodically shrouded their faces with bedclothes and covered the mirrors in the house.

This monster in the moonlight continued the murder spree at the neighbor’s home. There, Alice Burnham and her children slept while Mr. Burnham worked at a local sanatorium. Again, in the aftermath, the killer covered the victims’ faces and mirrors before disappearing.

The killings were suspiciously similar to others across the Midwest, but ultimately, the axe murders have remained unsolved more than a century later.

Colorado Springs creatives have taken advantage of the history— and fertile imaginations — to come up with Halloween-time entertainment in the 21st century, including tours of the macabre.

“With these tours, we’re using the supernatural as a lever to get people curious about our city’s past,” adds Swinford. “It’s up to our tour guests to sort out fact from fiction when it comes to the departed, but we hope they leave with a lively appreciation of our city. We’re fortunate to have a great partner in the Pikes Peak Writers’ Guild, whose membership consistently churns out great new haunted tales to augment the documented facts we share about creepy episodes from Colorado Springs’ yesteryears.”

THE FLU OF THE CENTURY

One such horror story certainly resonates today. Thousands of Coloradans succumbed to the 1918 influenza epidemic. With soldiers going to Europe to fight the Great War, the flu became a global pandemic.

In tiny Colorado Springs, the city morgue ran out of room for cadavers. There are businesses that currently operate downtown in buildings where bodies were temporarily stored a century ago, and some employees have testified to paranormal activity.

SLIDING THROUGH TIME

Emma Crawford is not one of those ghosts, but there are very different commemorations of her untimely passing.

She was born on March 24, 1863 in Massachusetts. Musical at an early age, Emma began performing public recitals and giving piano lessons at the age of 12.

Due to illness, Emma moved with her mother to Manitou Springs with the hope that the fresh mountain air and the local mineral springs would bring healing to her tuberculosis. It is said nature was Emma’s second love and could often be seen in a scarlet dress climbing Red Mountain.

“From its founding in 1871, local boosters advertised Colorado Springs as a premier health destination for the treatment of consumption and lung troubles, among other maladies,” Witherow said. “Our region’s greatest asset-turned-industry was its stunning scenery, abundant sunshine and mild climate.’ and enjoy the healing powers of our over 300 days of sunshine a year. ... For good reason, the city’s official nickname became The City of Sunshine.”

Regardless, death knocked on Emma Crawford’s door, and she died on Dec. 4, 1891. She was buried at the top of Red Mountain. However, the mountain succumbed to years of erosion — and in 1929, Emma’s coffin went into a landslide down the hill. This incident has now become a morbid town festival: each year, in October, Manitou Springs hosts the Emma Crawford Coffin Races & Festival.

FROZEN IN NED

And those are not the only coffin races in the state.

In 1989, a Norwegian citizen brought the corpse of his deceased grandfather, Bredo Morstøl to the United States. The body was preserved on dry ice and later in liquid nitrogen until 1993, when Morstøl’s body was placed inside a shed in Nederland.

There, Morstøl’s frozen corpse remains to this day. And just like the Emma Crawford Coffin races of Manitou Springs, Nederland has its own coffin race during Frozen Dead Guy Days.

Kristian DePue was born and raised in rural Indiana, and has worked as a contributing writer for various publications. In addition to writing, he enjoys travel, acting, and watching films. He currently resides in Colorado Springs and is thrilled by the growing artisan culture he is surrounded by. When not storytelling, he can often be found in a speakeasy, distillery or craft cocktail lounge.