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Room 311: The Murder That Haunts Chattanooga · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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Speaker 1: Welcome to ten Minute Murder, the podcast where we keep
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Speaker 1: it brief, bingeable, and occasionally haunted. Today we're heading to Chattanooga, Tennessee,
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Speaker 1: where I recently found myself staying in a hotel that
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Speaker 1: says infamous as it is historic. The place has been
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Speaker 1: around for over a century and a half, long enough
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Speaker 1: to witness civil war battles, brushes with presidents, and maybe
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Speaker 1: most unsettling of all, a ghostly guest that refuses to leave.
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Speaker 1: Room three eleven is where Annaleza Netherlely met a grim
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Speaker 1: in in nineteen twenty seven, and legend has it she
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Speaker 1: hasn't rested since. Guests have reported flickering lights, taps turning
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Speaker 1: on without warning, and shadows that seem to creep closer
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Speaker 1: if you're a man with a cigarette. Annaliza is especially
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Speaker 1: eager to make her presence known. I stayed in the
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Speaker 1: same hotel, not thankfully in the same room, but Analiza's
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Speaker 1: story felt close enough to keep me glancing over my
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Speaker 1: shoulder the whole time. So if you're curious or a
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Speaker 1: little daring, settle in as we uncover the haunting secrets
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Speaker 1: of the Read House Hotel. Today, I'd like to do
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Speaker 1: something a little different for me talk about a case
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Speaker 1: that's a little closer to home. For those of you
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Speaker 1: just joining or new to the podcast, we usually cover
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Speaker 1: true crime stories with a start, a middle, and an
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Speaker 1: end and a culprits to talk about in great detail.
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Speaker 1: But even though today's case is still a true crime
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Speaker 1: case to a certain extent, I wanted to cover the
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Speaker 1: story because it's a time in my life that I've
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Speaker 1: probably come the closest I ever will hopefully to being
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Speaker 1: in an actual, real life, historic murder scene. So, with
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Speaker 1: all of that being said, where are we going in
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Speaker 1: today's case and what exactly happened? I recently decided to
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Speaker 1: take a trip to look at the pretty fall leaves
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Speaker 1: changing colors, and there are few better places to do
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Speaker 1: that in the South than Chattanooga, Tennessee. I don't live
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Speaker 1: in Chattanooga, but I live close enough that I could
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Speaker 1: make the drive. It's a gorgeous city and it was
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Speaker 1: there that I came across a story that is probably
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Speaker 1: very well known to most locals, but it was entirely
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Speaker 1: new to me before my stay. During my trip, I
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Speaker 1: ended up staying at a hotel that is over one
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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty two years old and is the longest
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Speaker 1: continuously running hotel in the Southeast. I didn't choose the hotel.
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Speaker 1: My partner did. And she picked it because first she
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Speaker 1: got a good deal with credit card points. But the
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Speaker 1: main reason is because she was looking for a place
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Speaker 1: that fit both of our vibes. It's elegance, it's spooky,
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Speaker 1: and has a great story. For those of you that
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Speaker 1: are familiar with this living legend, you're probably already familiar
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Speaker 1: with the hotel that I'm talking about. But let's go
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Speaker 1: all the way back to the beginning to help piece
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Speaker 1: it all together. It was in eighteen forty seven the
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Speaker 1: future Chattanooga mayor Thomas Crutchfield Senior opened the Crutchfield House.
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Speaker 1: This humble hotel was situated right across the street from
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Speaker 1: the Union Depot and was an answer to the town's
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Speaker 1: biggest source of business imports. That meant that there was
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Speaker 1: a constant flow of businessmen, trade, and industry, and just
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Speaker 1: people in general in and out of Chattanooga, and Thomas
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Speaker 1: Crutchfield had had the business acumen to open up a
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Speaker 1: hotel in the most convenient place possible. Because of that,
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Speaker 1: the Crutchfield House grew into a thriving business venture and
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Speaker 1: provided a comfortable life for him and his family. But
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Speaker 1: almost from the get go, the Crutchfield House became embroiled
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Speaker 1: in conflict. Darker times were still on the horizon, but
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Speaker 1: within years of opening the hotel, it made its real
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Speaker 1: first brush with death. The first and only, thankfully President
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Speaker 1: of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, ended up staying at
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Speaker 1: the hotel on his way back home after resigning from
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Speaker 1: the United States Senate. Already seething with animosity over the
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Speaker 1: growing divides in American politics and even the American people,
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Speaker 1: Jefferson Davis then stood up in the Crutchfield House's dining
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Speaker 1: room and gave a speech. In it, he argued that
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Speaker 1: the Southern States of America should split and form their
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Speaker 1: own republic, where they would be able to govern themselves.
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Speaker 1: But rather than finding a favorable ear, Jefferson Davis found
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Speaker 1: him staring down the wrong end of a pistol. And
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Speaker 1: the crowd at the hotel that night was future Congressman
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Speaker 1: William Crutchfield, who just so happened to be the son
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Speaker 1: of Thomas Crutchfield Senior, who had built the hotel, and
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Speaker 1: brother to Thomas Crutchfield Junior, who now owned and ran it. Tennessee.
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Speaker 1: William told Jefferson Davis verbatim would not be quote hoodwinked, bamboozled,
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Speaker 1: and dragged into your Southern codfish, aristocratic tory blooded South
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Speaker 1: Carolina mobocracy. An explosive and heated argument then erupted between
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Speaker 1: the two men, which came a hair's breadth away from
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Speaker 1: resulting in a duel where more than likely one of them,
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Speaker 1: if not both, would end up dead. But despite William's
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Speaker 1: passionate words and fiery beliefs, the Crutchfield House would find
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Speaker 1: it had no other choice than to fly the Confederate flag.
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Speaker 1: Only a few years later. It was during the Civil War,
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Speaker 1: when Confederate troops filled the streets of Chattanooga, that the
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Speaker 1: Crutchfield Hotel would seized and turned into a military hospital.
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Speaker 1: Hundreds of men lost their lives, slowly and painfully in
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Speaker 1: rooms that had once been the lifeblood of the community
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Speaker 1: and in dining rooms that had once clinked with the
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Speaker 1: sound of cutlery. Crutchfield House would survive these dark days,
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Speaker 1: but a fire would burn the hotel to the ground
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Speaker 1: only a few years later, and the family decided that
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Speaker 1: the ashes were all that should remain of that chapter
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Speaker 1: of their lives. It was then that John T. Reid
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Speaker 1: stepped in to change the course of the Crutchfield House.
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Speaker 1: During the Civil War he acted as a surgeon, but
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Speaker 1: before then he and his wife owned and ran their
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Speaker 1: own hotel in their hometown of McMinnville, Tennessee. Theirs, just
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Speaker 1: like the Crutchfield House, had recently burned down and had
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Speaker 1: forced the Reeds to move the Chattanooga about a year
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Speaker 1: before the same thing would happen to the crutch Fields.
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Speaker 1: When the crutch Fields then turned their backs on the house,
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Speaker 1: the Reeds were there to take up the mantle and
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Speaker 1: bring in their own experience and expertise. John built the
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Speaker 1: Reed House Hotel on the site that had previously been
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Speaker 1: home to the Crutchfield House. It was bigger, it was taller,
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Speaker 1: and it was now a three story, forty five room
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Speaker 1: hotel right across the street from the Union Depot. It
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Speaker 1: remained like that for generations until nineteen twenty five, when
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Speaker 1: the original building was torn down and rebuilt with more
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Speaker 1: modern and lavish amenities. Since then, the building stands ten
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Speaker 1: stories high and has been sold, resold, and purchased by
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Speaker 1: Big industry names like Best Western, Radison Hotels and Sheridan Hotels.
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Speaker 1: It housed political figures like Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland,
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Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and even Winston Churchhill.
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Speaker 1: It seemed celebrities like Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney,
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Speaker 1: and even Al Capone. But we'll get back to him later,
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Speaker 1: because it's now that we can really get into the
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Speaker 1: heart of today's story Room three eleven. After his sctoric
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Speaker 1: events like the Civil War and the Great Depression, it's
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Speaker 1: safe to say that the Reed House has seen more
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Speaker 1: than its fair share of bloodshed and misery. But nowhere
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Speaker 1: else in the hotel is that statement more true than
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Speaker 1: for its Room three eleven. Room three eleven is the
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Speaker 1: backdrop for some of the most horrific and brutal events
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Speaker 1: to have ever happened at the hotel, and it just
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Speaker 1: so happened to be not very many doors down from
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Speaker 1: where I stayed during my trip to Chattanooga. All through
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Speaker 1: the night, my mind kept wandering back to Room three eleven.
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Speaker 1: I couldn't stop imagining what the walls in that room
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Speaker 1: might say. They could speak as accounts go it was
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Speaker 1: shortly after the renovations in the nineteen twenties the tragedy
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Speaker 1: would strike the hotel yet again. Her name was Analiza Netherly,
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Speaker 1: and as the story goes, Analiza lived at the hotel
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Speaker 1: during nineteen twenty seven and was supporting her extended stay
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Speaker 1: by working as a lady of the night. It's here
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Speaker 1: that accounts divide, but they do, unfortunately converge back on
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Speaker 1: the same path to give us all the exact same
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Speaker 1: chilling ending. One version of history tells us that Analiza
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Speaker 1: had been staying at the hotel with her lover when
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Speaker 1: he discovered that she'd been seeing other men on the side.
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Speaker 1: Furious and jilted, her lover sometimes called her husband, had
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Speaker 1: then come back into their room to find Analiza soaking
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Speaker 1: in the bath. He grabbed a knife and slit her throat,
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Speaker 1: cutting so deeply that he almost decapitated her. The other
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Speaker 1: version has Analiza at the hotel with her lover, only
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Speaker 1: for her to discover that he had taken a mistress. Heartbroken,
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Speaker 1: Analiza then locked herself in their room and had taken
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Speaker 1: her own life. With either version of the story, all
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Speaker 1: that awaited Analisa in Room three eleven was a brutal
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Speaker 1: and bloody death, but that's almost unbelievably is not where
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Speaker 1: Analiza's story ends. According to some guests, including al Capone,
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Speaker 1: who stayed in room three eleven while he was in
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Speaker 1: route to his trial for tax evasion, there's nothing remarkable
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Speaker 1: about the room or even the bathroom where Analiza met
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Speaker 1: her end. But for many others, their experience of Room
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Speaker 1: three eleven has been entirely different. Many guests end up
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Speaker 1: checking out early, or even asking to move rooms in
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Speaker 1: the middle of the night. They claim that while they're
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Speaker 1: in there at the scene of Analize's cold blooded murder
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Speaker 1: almost a century before, Analiza wouldn't let them rest. It's
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Speaker 1: said that Analiza particularly despises men, especially if they smoke.
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Speaker 1: If a guest matching that description checks into Room three eleven,
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Speaker 1: Analiza does her best to antagonize them. Like something out
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Speaker 1: of a Stephen King novel. The lights in the room
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Speaker 1: were said to flicker on and off on their own,
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Speaker 1: Taps will start running seemingly at random, Strange noises, and
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Speaker 1: shadowy figures will stalk guests through the night. At reception,
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Speaker 1: instead of giving you a regular key card, hotel staff
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Speaker 1: will hand you an old fashioned metal key for a
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Speaker 1: manual lock on the room door. They might even tell
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Speaker 1: you that the lock and key help to keep Analiza in.
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Speaker 1: I personally and fortunately did not stay in Room three
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Speaker 1: eleven when I was at the read House Hotel, but
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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that I didn't feel Analiza's lasting memory
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Speaker 1: and legacy stalking the halls or lingering over the hotel
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Speaker 1: like a dark shadow. Either. If you're ever in the neighborhood,
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Speaker 1: check in if you dared to brave a sleepless night
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Speaker 1: or a terrifying encounter with whatever paranormal entity now calls
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Speaker 1: dreaded Room three eleven home. That is ten minute murder
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Speaker 1: for today brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe, that's
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Speaker 1: my name. I'm the host, and thank you for taking
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Speaker 1: the time to listen all right now. If you're a
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Speaker 1: brand new listener, this was a weird episode. I do
12:06
Speaker 1: realize that they're not all like that. But you can
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Speaker 1: subscribe right now wherever you like to listen to podcasts
12:12
Speaker 1: and check out the back episodes. There are literally hundreds
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Speaker 1: more episodes for you to listen to. Just hit subscribe
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Speaker 1: wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Right, let's talk
12:21
Speaker 1: about the read House Hotel for a second. I had
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Speaker 1: no idea where I was headed. While I was headed there,
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Speaker 1: I knew that it was going to be a spooky
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Speaker 1: place and it was historic, and I just wanted to
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Speaker 1: go to Chattanooga to look at the pretty leaves. But
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Speaker 1: this hotel is fantastic. It's gorgeous. While I was there,
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Speaker 1: there were multiple weddings taking place, multiple receptions, because it's
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Speaker 1: one of those places where you walk in and your
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Speaker 1: jaw just drops it. It's like you walk in and
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Speaker 1: it's a whole different era. It's gorgeous, and it's one
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Speaker 1: of those places you go in there you're like, I
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Speaker 1: would not mind getting married in here. This would be
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Speaker 1: a fantastic place. All kinds of different entertaining rooms. The
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Speaker 1: lobby looks like it gets straight out of the twenties
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Speaker 1: or thirties. It's great. I took a bunch of photos, like,
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Speaker 1: way too many photos, and I'll post some of those
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Speaker 1: on the ten Minute Murder socials. So if you go
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Speaker 1: and follow me there, then you'll see all the photos
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Speaker 1: that I'm talking about, not all the photos because I
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Speaker 1: literally took hundreds because the place is fantastic. I just
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Speaker 1: wandered around like I'm some kind of tourist, and kind
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Speaker 1: I guess I kind of was. I'd never been there before.
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Speaker 1: I'd been the chatter. I've been to the Chattanooga a
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Speaker 1: hundred times, but this place I'd never even heard of
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Speaker 1: until now. It's got those big, huge chandeliers, the classy
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Speaker 1: wood accents. There's a library there, historic artifacts. There was
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Speaker 1: even in some towns, we have these ghost tours where
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Speaker 1: they just kind of walk you around town telling you
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Speaker 1: all about the historic things that have happened, who's died
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Speaker 1: in the city, and things like that. There were multiple
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Speaker 1: rounds of ghost tours that came through there, and that's
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Speaker 1: where I learned some of this information about it was
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Speaker 1: I was just eavesdropping on some of these ghost walking tours.
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Speaker 1: It's incredible. I had a couple drinks in the bar,
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Speaker 1: and the bar looks like you've walked into a speakeasy,
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Speaker 1: but also if a speakeasy had the football game on,
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Speaker 1: because that's what I did. I just sat and hung out, chilled,
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Speaker 1: I pet a dog, and I watched the football game
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Speaker 1: and I had a drink or two. Okay, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: stop gushing about this hotel because I feel obligated to
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Speaker 1: tell you at this point, they're not paying me to
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Speaker 1: talk about it. They don't know I exist, they didn't
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Speaker 1: ask me to come, they didn't know I was there.
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Speaker 1: This is no different than if you were to go
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Speaker 1: check in that place yourself, except I have a microphone
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Speaker 1: and a podcast. Anyway, as I mentioned, to make sure
14:36
Speaker 1: you hit subscribe. If you have not subscribed to the podcast,
14:39
Speaker 1: go to ten minute murder dot com for all things
14:41
Speaker 1: related to the podcast, and if you want to send
14:43
Speaker 1: me an email, Joe at ten minute murder dot com
14:46
Speaker 1: is my email address, and that's gonna do it. That
14:49
Speaker 1: is your episode for today. Thank you so much for
14:52
Speaker 1: listening to ten Minute Murder.