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The Driskill Hotel · Flabberghosted

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Flabber Ghosted.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Jen.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Meg.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: And this week we will be covering the legendary Driscoll Hotel located in Austin, Texas.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that's close to home.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Very close to home.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Especially for me.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: So for the audience that doesn't know, I spent a majority of my 20s living in Austin.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Highlight of my 20s, I'm not gonna lie.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: I did have a love-hate relationship with the city, but overall, it is a city that I hold near and dear to my heart.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: I love it completely.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: And also I live outside of Austin currently, so it is very close to home me as well.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we both hail from Texas.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Both Texas girlies here.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: For the audience that doesn't know.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: But all right, so I'm going to dive into a little history lesson about the Driscoll Hotel itself and its founder, Colonel Jesse Lincoln Driscoll.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know anything about this man?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: No, but I didn't even know the Driscoll was a hotel.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the way you told me that you were covering this.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Low-key, I thought it was a cryptid.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that shows you how much I know about this.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: I can see why you would think that it's a cryptid.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because literally all you said was, I'm doing Driscoll.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, don't know what that is.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: I guess it's like just because I anytime I was on 6th Street, I passed it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: So here we go.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Colonel Jesse Lincoln Driscoll, unlike us, does not hail from Texas originally.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: He was born November 4th, 1824, in Tennessee.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: He was originally of Irish descent, the O'Driscolls of County Cork, Ireland.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: He was married at the age of 23 to Miss Nancy Elizabeth Jane Day.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: They married in September 1847, and they actually lived in Missouri.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And yep.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: And they lived in Missouri for about five years, and then around 1851, they moved to Bashdrop, Texas.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Are you familiar with where Bashdrop is?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I drive through it every time I go to Houston.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: There we go.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: So Bash Drop, for those that don't know, is a little bit on the outskirts of Austin, still very much easy to commute into the city from there.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm sure not so much with the way traffic flows now, but it takes about an hour to get from Bastrop to Austin.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: So when he lived in Bashrop, Texas, he went into the merchandising business.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: And from there, he moved to beautiful San Antonio, San Marcos, and then Bryan, Texas as well.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so he just like slowly worked his way up 35.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty much, yeah.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, not that 35 existed back then, but that's essentially where I-35 runs today.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Which I'm sure it was a lot harder back then.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm sure.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, basically all up and down the I-35 corridor.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: In 1857, he entered the cattle business.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: And this is where a majority of his fortune ends up coming from.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go through a little bit of that later.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: So Driscoll's life was actually very up and down, I found in my research.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Very rags to riches, back to rags, back to riches.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: It is a roller coaster.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: So are you familiar with what went down in the United States between 1861 and 1865?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think just a little bit.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Just a little, you know, between the Confederacy and the Union.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's just like the small teeny tiny little thing happened.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Easy thing.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the the Civil War.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: For everybody.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: So for three years during the Civil War, Driscoll actually utilized his cattle business to supply beef to the Confederate soldiers and then to the Texas Rangers.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: However, during this time he was paid in Confederate dollars.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's par for the course.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Any idea what this means when the end of the war came?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I just I have this feeling that that money is just a worthless piece of paper, you know?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: So by the end of the war, he was left with no cattle and no money.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Because he sold all his cattle?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Is that why he didn't have any?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why he doesn't have all his cattle anymore.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: It was just said he had no cattle.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: I guess he's I don't want to say he slaughtered it all.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: I really don't know.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: But he had no cattle, no more, no more beef.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: But unlike the Confederacy.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Beef galore.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't let this stop him, though.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: He actually rebuilt his herds, and he it was him and his brother-in-law that they worked alongside each other, and they started working more into northern trading routes along like the Chisholm Trail, which I really don't know much about the Chisholm Trail, but it was mentioned.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: So the Chisholm Trail.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: He rebuilt his herds and he established ranches in South Texas, Kansas, and in the Dakota Territories.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: It was in 1869 that he moved his family, which consisted of his wife Nancy, four daughters, and two sons to Austin.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Austin at that time was the up-and-coming metropolis of the South.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't until 1872, actually, that Austin was established as the capital of Texas.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, because before then it was Houston.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and actually, I don't know when the town, I don't know when Austin was renamed Austin, but it used to be Waterloo.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then they named it after Stephen F.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Austin.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Just like Houston's named after Sam Houston, who was the first president of the Republic of Texas.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: For those of you who weren't forced to take Texas history.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Side note, Jen Hale's from Texas, but she actually grew up outside of Texas.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so she um she was born here, but not raised here.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: Nope.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I did my adulthood there, my young adulthood.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's valid.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: It was in 1880 that Driscoll got the idea to build a luxurious grand hotel.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: His thought process was we have Austin as the new capital, so we have politicians coming through here, we have celebrities coming through here, we have this high clientele running through the city, but we have no place for them to gather.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: Very valid.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: He wanted to create a showpiece for this new frontier town, and this hotel was intended to rival hotels in major metropolis cities that had already long been established, such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, St.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Louis, etc.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it wasn't until 1884 or 1885 that he purchased an entire city block on the corner of Pecan, which is now 6th Street, and Brazos.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: And this was going to be the site of his future hotel.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Any thoughts about how much an entire city block would have costed back in the 1880s?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Let's give it your best guess.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: 800?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Higher.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Higher.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: 1200.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Higher.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Higher.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: 2000?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Higher.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1800s.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: In the 1800s, it was$7,500.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: He bought this entire city block.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't until December 20th, 1886, that the Driscoll Hotel officially opened its doors.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: And the entire cost to build was estimated to be$400,000.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: Which in today's money is equivalent to$92 million.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: All of which came from the pockets of Driscoll and the Driscoll family.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not surprising they have that much money because there is a lot of money to be found in this.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: There really was.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Especially if he owned that many ranches.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: But he put everything that he had into this hotel.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's like right next to the Capitol.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the Capitol was still being built at the time.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Fun fact.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: True.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: Which I'll go into a little bit more about that later.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's why I found this so fascinating, is because I really got to research into this.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: So the Capitol was still being built at the time.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: And in 1888, there was a late spring freeze that hit the northern plains where he had cattle established, and it killed 3,000 cattle.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Due to this, the Driscoll family lost their fortune once again.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Payments on the hotel were unable to be made because we have this grand luxurious hotel that nobody at the time could afford to really stay at.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: And as a result, the hotel had to be sold.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then on May 3rd, 1890, two years later, Driscoll died of a stroke.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: And many say he died a brokenhearted man.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he died brokenhearted because he put all his time and money into building this hotel just to lose it.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: To lose it, like not even really get to enjoy it.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: It opened in late 1886.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: He died kind of mid-1890, so he didn't really get to spend a lot of time.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's only four years.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Your life's work.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, it probably has way more amenities than he knew were possible.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: At the time, yeah.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: So Driscoll was described as an adventurous drover, a fearless ranchman, and then we know he was obviously a very persistent man as well.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: An adventurous what?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: An adventurous drover.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: What's a drover?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, man.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was in the research.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hang on, I have Google.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I still have Google pulled up.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: What is a drover?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is it spelled how it songs?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, cattle driver.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I like how we both saw it at the same time.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: He was an adventurous cattle driver, a fearless ranchman, a very persistent man at that.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: But what he also was was an avid cigar smoker.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: He was known to actually always have a cigar in hand.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever smelled a cigar?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, actually I have.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Describe the smell for me.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's disgusting.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh most of the time cigars are typically described as a little sweet.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: They are typically described as sweet, sometimes a little leathery, sometimes a little woodsy, a little earthy.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um for the sake of this story, I'm gonna go with my cigar smelling experience, and I'm gonna say that they're sweet.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: A little sweet smell.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, valid.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: There have been reports from people that they smell this subtle, sweet, smoky smell in the lobby and bar area of the Driscoll.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Which wouldn't be so strange if the Driscoll Hotel wasn't smoke-free.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah, that kind of puts a damper.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: It has been smoke-free since 2006.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: So for two decades, smoke-free hotel, but we still get this sweet smoky smell occasionally lingering.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say you're uh you're a staff member working at the Driscoll.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: You're you know, you're working overtime, there's people coming through here all the time.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's a very busy part of the city as well, and you smell this sweet smell, this sweet smoky smell.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: In the lobby area.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: What would you do?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, first instinct.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Look to see who the heck is breaking the smoke-free rule.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, probably not in the moment you're not thinking about like, you know, the legends and stuff around the hauntings.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: There was a staff member who did try to follow the scent of the smell and see if they could locate the source.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why you die in a horror movie.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: So the lobby of the Driscoll is fairly sizable, it has all of these beautiful columns.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was kind of like a romantic Romanesque design, architecture design, or is so we have all of these beautiful columns, marble floors, and then to the side there's some seating areas.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: So this staff member, you know, they're trying to locate the smell.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're looking behind the columns, they're they're looking in the seating areas, you know, they're they're trying to figure out, locate the source, they're by the grand staircase, you know, really, really investigating.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: From behind their shoulder, they hear a voice ask, you got a match?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: If that happened to you, what would you do?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be running.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Running.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: She is a runner, she's a track star.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Allegedly, the employee quit that day.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Same, I would.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's my final shot.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Out of there.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, no one was behind them.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: I forgot to mention that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I assume so.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: So again, this uh spirit is uh mainly attributed to Driscoll himself, and believe that he is still there enjoying the hotel that he never really got to enjoy in his life.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: I can't blame him.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't either.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: There is a few other spirits that haunt the hotel as well.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, as mentioned before, the Texas State Capitol that we know today was still under construction at the time.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, Drisco Hotel opened up December 20th, 1886.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Two weeks later, January 1st, 1887, Governor Sol Ross held his inaugural ball at the hotel's ballroom.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: And it became this tradition for other governors as well to hold their inaugural ball at the hotel.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's just a little caveat.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't really pertain.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what happens in odd numbered years in Texas as well?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Odd numbered years in Texas.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I should.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't, I don't, I don't think it's really common, common knowledge.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, nothing's coming to mind.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I probably should, but I don't.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: In odd numbered years in Texas, the Texas legislative sessions are held.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, see, I should know this.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: I knew it was every other year.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know it was odd numbered years.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, odd numbered years.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: And they kick off in January and they typically last through end of May, beginning of June.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: So January 1st, 1887, we have Governor Sol Ross and his inaugural ball at the hotel's ballroom.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then January 11th, 1887 is when the 20th Texas legislative session begins.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: The Texas Capitol Building is under construction.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: So temporarily, some of these legislative meetings were held at the Driscoll.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it was during one of these meetings that we meet Samantha.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Samantha is a four or she was a four-year-old little girl.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: But this one's really tragic.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: She was the daughter of one of the senators who was in Austin for the legislative session.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Her father obviously had business to attend to, needed to focus, and he needed a way to distract Samantha.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, it's the 1880s.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have Nintendo Switches, we don't have iPads.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: So he gave her the best that technology had to offer at the time, a ball.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that's a standard toy to give a kid.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: So he gave her a ball to play with.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: She's playing with the ball.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: She's on the Grand Mezzanine, which is around the second floor of the would have been the second floor, or maybe still is, of the Driscoll at the time.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And at the time the Driscoll had this giant skylight, and it was balconies on balconies.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: The Grand Mezzanine, you can look into the lobby.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: They don't have that anymore because the skylight was just to uh get the air circulating throughout the hotel because it didn't have central AC at the time.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: That was later put in.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: So she's playing with the ball on the Grand Mezzanine.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: She's dribbling it, she's bouncing it.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, she's doing that thing where you launch it high up in the air and you try to catch it.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, classic.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Classic play with the ball.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: We've all done it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: During her play, she is slowly shifting over towards the grand staircase.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it was here that she launched the ball too high up in the air.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: In an attempt to catch it, she tumbled down the steps and is believed to have passed from a broken neck.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I believe that.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: I can see it happening.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: This one is it's truly tragic, a four-year-old.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's always tragic when they're scared.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: It really is.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: However, her spirit is still allegedly spotted, still darting around the Grand Mezzanine.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: And on the fifth floor of a of the Driscoll, there is a portrait of a young girl, and she's holding a bouquet of flowers.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Supposedly, Samantha's spirit is often seen around this portrait as well.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: Whether this portrait is truly of Samantha, we don't know.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: So she is their youngest poltergeist.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: She's described as friendly.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: And have you ever gone on vacation with your family, you know, when you're young, and you meet other kids there and you're playing with them the entire vacation, and you're like best friends, and then you never see them again in your life?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and some camps the same way, you're like best friends.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then you both go home and never talk to each other ever again.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, Samantha is known to play with the children staying at the hotel.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: She plays with them in their rooms or even in the hallways.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: And when parents ask who their child is playing with, the reply is typically Samantha.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of cute though.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: She has playmates.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: She's never really truly alone, which is great.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's sweet.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Not as sweet as the cigar smoke us, I bet, but sweet.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's hormony.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: So now we are going to get into the final ghost that I have studied, at least up until this point.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And now we're jumping ahead.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: We are no longer in the 1880s.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: We are now in the 1990s.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: And we're early 1990s.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you and me, we don't exist yet.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: We don't exist yet.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: But we're closer to existing.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: In the 1990s, there was a socialite from Houston.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Woo.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Side note for the listeners, if you guys don't know, Megan's hometown is Houston.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's my hometown.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: We got our Houston girly here.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: So Houston born and raised you.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: So this Houston socialite was allegedly named Nadia.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: I can't really confirm if that was her name or not.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: So for the sake of this story, we're just gonna call her the bride.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Easy.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: The bride, you know, obviously she's engaged.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: She, it's a few days before the wedding.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: She's, you know, crossing all her her T's, dotting all her I's, making sure the floral arrangements are ready to go, the foods worked out, seating plans worked out.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: When her fiance comes up to her and breaks things off with her, and cancels the wedding for whatever an excuse a man might have, doesn't love her, has a side chick, who knows?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's the 90s.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: How would you react?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, I can see where like you're going with this.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, I could say, like, oh, I'm gonna go draw my sorrows.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, for those who are listening, I'm not a drinker.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: So let's be real here, I'd probably like hole up in my room, you know, play some Sims or some Stardew Valley, you know, read some fan fiction or whatever.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: But like, I'm gonna guess she went and had some fun on Sixth Street.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Arguably, you have the healthier coping mechanisms than our bride did.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, that's what four years of therapy will do for you.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, our bride is so distraught.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: She does the only thing that she can really think of to do, and she steals her ex-fiance's sports car.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: We love that.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: We do.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: A little grand theft auto.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Good for her.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: She decides to take herself on a little trip to Austin, and while she's there, she's gonna stay at the most lavish hotel that she possibly can, which is the Driscoll Hotel.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: But don't worry, this is still paid for by her ex-fiance because on top of stealing his car, she stole his credit cards.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: We love financial fraud.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: We do.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: And while she was in Austin, the bride also decided that this man owed her a shopping spree.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: So on his card, she takes herself down in his sports card, Barton Creek Square.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: She's going to the mall.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: She's shopping.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: She's at Nordstrom.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: She's at Dillard's.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Doing all the things.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: She's at Macy's.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Footlocker, hot topic, whatever you want to say she was at.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: She was there.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: She was buying stuff.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: Some reports say she spent$10,000.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Others say she spent$40,000.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Good for her.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: Either way, she maxes man's cards out.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Good for her.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Good for her.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: We love it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: We support women's rights and wrongs.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: So she returns to the Driscoll that evening.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: She has all her shopping bags with her.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: And she gets on the elevator, returns to her room.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Supposedly it's room 525.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: She hangs the do not disturb sign on the door.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: She has all of her shopping bags around her.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, her new shoes, her new dresses, new jewelry, whatever she decided that she wanted to buy.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: Amongst her newly acquired items, she also bought herself a brand new pistol.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because this is tax.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: She took her new pistol, she took a pillow from the bed, she went into the bathroom, laid in the tub, pillow over her stomach, shot herself.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: It was there in the tub that she slowly bled out until she died.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: Her body allegedly was not found for about three days.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Reports say that if the gun wound hadn't killed her, the amount of alcohol in her body would have.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, why were the walls 18-inches thick concrete?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: I really don't know.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was design choice by Driscoll.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm assuming he just valued privacy.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, things were made to last back then, not like they are today, when we have like a piece of cardboard.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's fair.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I was just curious about that.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: But an unfortunate end to her crime spring.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was rooting for her.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: We were all rooting for her.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: We were rooting for her.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: But yes, so that is the end to our bride.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: However, obviously, we're talking about ghosts here.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about ghosts.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is not the end.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: So, guests report seeing a woman carrying many shopping bags into an elevator and then disappearing, or carrying many shopping bags and standing in front of room 525, or even carrying a pistol and standing in front of a room.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: One famous account is from a set of friends.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: So these two friends decided, oh my gosh, let's have a girls' trip, let's go to Austin, and let's stay at the most lavish hotel that we can find, and let's split it.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: That hotel being the Driscoll.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: And at the time, the I don't have the year sadly.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: At the time, the Driscoll was under renovations.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: And the the two friends get off on their floor, and they say that they saw a woman standing in front of a room door, holding her shopping bags, and almost hesitating to go in.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: At this time, you know, all of the noise from the construction is, you know, clanging, banging, all of the good stuff, hammering, drilling.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so these two ladies, being the girls, girls that they are, they ask her if the noise from the construction is bothering her.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: And there was some hesitation from the woman with the shopping bags.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then she replied, No, no, it doesn't.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then she went into the room.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously the two ladies thought this was a little fishy, and they reported it to the manager of the hotel.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: The manager told the two ladies, That hotel room is under renovation.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing in there.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: And to prove it to them, he took them to the room, opened the door, and surely enough, in there, only construction and renovation supplies.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, at least it's not bothering her.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: She's resting in peace, that's for sure.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, she's resting in peace.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: So the funny thing is, is that this is not our only jilted bride known at the Driscoll Hotel.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: There was another bride in the late 1800s who shared a similar fate to our 90s bride.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: She also had an engagement that was broken off, and she too took her life at the Driscoll after the wedding was called off.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remember the room number that I gave you?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is it gonna be 525?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: Supposedly, our Victorian era bride was also in room 525.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then some accounts even say that these happened a hundred years apart to the day.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's fascinating.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: That is the story I want to believe.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: However, there are also also other accounts saying that these actually occurred in two separate rooms and that our 90s bride was allegedly in room 427 or even in room 329.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: But more than likely, you're gonna hear about room 525.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because like that that's the better story to tell.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: That they both died in the same room on the same day 100 years apart.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's the spookier story.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, the Drisco Hotel has other ghosts that I did not cover in my research.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's one of a cowboy that is known to reveal himself to female rock stars.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's very specific.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Very specific.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, one of them was from the band The Eurythmics, you know, sweet dreams are made of these.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I cannot remember who the other woman is.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: Let me look that up real quick.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: Cowboy goes Annie Lennox of the singer from Concrete Blonde.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I've never heard of them, but okay.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've heard of the Eurythmics.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: I have not heard of Concrete Blonde, but Annie Lennox was so shaken up by this experience that she actually went on to write her song Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: We love that.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: We do.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, the Drisco Hotel, known as this central hub for socializing and its spooky history, it still stands in Austin to this day.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's undergone many uh renovations, it's owned by Hyatt, I believe, at this point.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a little bit more modern.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, you can still stay there.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: But whether it's truly haunted or not, I think that's for y'all to decide.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's too.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let us know what you think in the comments below, or find us on Instagram, or drop us an email at flapperghostedpodcast at gmail.com.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: Stay spooky, y'all.